Annamalai might be expecting a post from BJP, says AIADMK leader

Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai may be keeping his party alive in the state by organising protests regularly with the hope of landing in “some post” like his predecessors, a senior AIADMK leader said on Saturday, intensifying the war of words between the two political parties on who is the “real Opposition.”

Sellur K Raju, former minister and MLA from Madurai (West), also maintained that the political landscape in Tamil Nadu will always be bipolar – DMK and AIADMK – and other parties won’t have much space.

“He (Annamalai) is doing politics. I shouldn’t be saying this as BJP is our alliance partner. (L) Murugan ji was made a Union Minister of State after he held a vel (spear) in his hand. Tamilisai Soundararajan was given a position. May be he is (being active) because he expects some post,” Raju said.

He was responding to a question on BJP being “proactive” as an Opposition party and remarks by the leaders of that party criticising AIADMK for not performing its role. Raju also tore into the BJP, saying organising a protest with a few thousand people doesn’t make any party the “real Opposition” in a state.

“Their (BJP’s) crowd is full of crows (which can fly anytime). But our crowd has an ideology. We are very clear in our stand. We won’t tolerate any attack on us,” Raju said.

Raju joins the list of leaders criticising the BJP for projecting itself as the Opposition party in the state. His statement comes a day after party joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami said that the entire state knew how the AIADMK was raising issues concerning people in the assembly.

It began on Tuesday when Ponnaiyan, while addressing a closed-door meeting of party cadres, said AIADMK’s ideology was “diametrically opposite” to that of the BJP and asked the cadre to get more active on social media to counter the narrative being set that the saffron party was playing the role of the Opposition in the state.

As a video clip of Ponnaiyan’s speech went viral on social media, the senior AIADMK leader spoke to the media on Wednesday. In his interactions with various media outlets, Ponnaiyan said the BJP cannot grow in the state unless it changes its ideology and stand on sensitive issues like Cauvery and Hindi imposition.