AIADMK's rebel MP Sasikala Pushpa joins BJP

The BJP on Sunday added one more MP to its benches in the Rajya Sabha by inducting AIADMK's rebel lawmaker Sasikala Pushpa Ramaswamy into the party, which is seen as party's efforts to strengthen itself ahead of next year's Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Her expulsion was announced by the AIADMK in 2016 after she was in the eye of a storm over an altercation with a DMK MP at the Delhi airport. However, Sasikala, whose term ends on April 2 this year, has been listed as an AIADMK MP in Rajya Sabha till now.

With this, the BJP will have 83 MPs in the Upper House. She joined the party in the presence of BJP National Secretary P Muralidhar Rao and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan.

Rao said Sasikala is a "very aggressive, vocal leader in Tamil Nadu. Coming from south Tamil Nadu, she has also been a mayor of Thoothukudi, a port town, and has worked as the chief of the AIADMK's women's wing for the state."

He said the BJP's capacity to fight the Assembly election next year will "definitely gain further advantage" with her joining the party.

"In Tamil Nadu, the BJP is gaining in strength day by day. Our membership and penetration have increased in every district of the state. The appeal of Narendra Modi is enhancing the party's spread. We have an ideological and political fight with the DMK and the Congress. As we have been fighting all over the country, the fight in Tamil Nadu is also getting sharpened day by day. Even in Delhi, Tamil people are now supporting the BJP," Rao added.