TN BJP vice-president, CM Palaniswami’s kin join DMK

Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president B T Arasakumar, who earned the wrath of the party for praising M K Stalin’s leadership skills at an event last week, on Thursday joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s close relative, Viswanathan, also joined the DMK in the presence of its President Stalin.

Arasakumar, one of the many vice-presidents of the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit, was in the news recently after he praised Stalin’s leadership skills saying that the DMK president would become the Chief Minister of the state. The effusive praise of Stalin irked the party as it has been training all its guns on criticising the DMK and its president on a slew of issues.

After the controversial comments, Arasakumar, who had been defending the BJP on Tamil television debates, was asked not to represent the party on shows. The state unit, which is headless after Tamilisai Soundararajan was packed off to Telangana as Governor, also wrote to the central leadership seeking action against Arasakumar.

Defending his comments, Arasakumar on Thursday he was being abused by BJP leaders for speaking his mind and praising Stalin. “After the harassment and humiliation at the hands of my party leaders, I decided to quit the BJP and join the DMK. Only a few leaders can grow in the BJP. Others can’t,” he said after meeting Stalin.

The BJP had on Monday said Arasakumar’s statement was against the “ideology and principle” of the BJP.

In a related development, Palaniswami’s relative Viswanathan, who holds AIADMK post in Edappadi taluk, joined the DMK. Though Viswanathan is a much junior leader in the pecking order of the AIADMK, the fact that he is the nephew of the Chief Minister made his joining the DMK embarrassing for Palaniswami.