Mentioning Kongu Nadu in bio-data was a 'clerical mistake': Murugan

Union Minister of State L Murugan on Friday sought to put an end to the controversy surrounding ‘Kongu Nadu’, saying the term appeared in his bio-data released by the BJP was due to a “clerical mistake”.

“It is a clerical mistake. There is no need to talk about the issue anymore. It is over. Let us not talk about the issue,” Murugan told reporters after his colleague K Annamalai assumed office as President of Tamil Nadu BJP.

Murugan and Annamalai suggested that the BJP does not support any demand for bifurcation of Tamil Nadu. “It is like making a mountain out of a mole. The term ‘Kongu Nadu’ was used as a social identity for Murugan Ji,” Annamalai said.

The new BJP chief also said he has sought an explanation from the Coimbatore District office-bearers for passing a resolution demanding Kong Nadu. “We don’t subscribe to that,” he said.

The ‘Kongu Nadu’ controversy began last week after a profile released by the BJP mentioned that Murugan hailed from Kongu Nadu, otherwise known as the western region of Tamil Nadu. The Kongu region comprises seven districts, and the AIADMK-PMK-BJP combine won 33 of the total 50 seats in the region while the DMK alliance almost every other region of the state.

Adding fuel to the fire was a front-page report carried by popular Tamil daily Dinamalar that said the Centre was planning to carve out Kongu Nadu as a Union Territory from Tamil Nadu as a “befitting” response to the DMK government referring to the Union Government as ‘Ondriya Arasu” in Tamil.

The Dinamalar report claimed the BJP was toying with the idea of announcing the region into a Union Territory since it enjoys popularity in the region. A few BJP leaders also appeared to support the demand by saying it was the government’s duty to fulfill the aspirations of people, leading to condemnation from across the political spectrum.