New Delhi: Out of the 200 wards in the Greater Chennai Corporation, Uma Anandan was the only BJP candidate who managed to bag a seat for the party by winning from Ward 134 in West Mambalam. Anandhan won the ward with 5,539 votes while Congress’ Sushila Gopalkrishnan bagged 3,503 votes and AIADMK’s Anuradha got 2,695 votes.
Results of the Tamil Nadu urban local body elections were declared Tuesday in which ruling DMK and its allies registered a landslide victory. They won over two-thirds of the 12,800 plus ward member posts and bagging all the 21 municipal corporations in Tamil Nadu. DMK swept 153 out of 200 wards in Chennai Corporation.
BJP had fielded 5,480 candidates in nearly 43% of the 12,838 seats in 649 urban local bodies (ULBs), in the state, according to a Times of India report.
சென்னை 134வது வட்டத்தில் திருமதி.உமா ஆனந்தன் வெற்றி
BJP 5539
CONG 3503
ADMK 2695@annamalai_k
— BJP Tamilnadu (@BJP4TamilNadu) February 22, 2022
Anandan, a vocal critic of the DMK government, has landed herself in soup on several occasions in the past for various controversial statements. Following her win, videos of her problematic remarks have gone viral on social media. From endorsing Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse to her remarks on Christains and Muslims to supporting the caste system, Anandan has a record of making a lot of noise for all the wrong reasons.
Anandan is currently the vice president of Temple Worshippers Society, Chennai, which aims to “retrieve the temples from the unholy clutches of a ‘secular’ government, restore their sanctity”.
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Controversial remarks
In an earlier interview with a YouTube channel, when asked about her views on Godse, she hailed him saying, “Godse is a Hindu. I am a proud supporter of Godse. I have no regrets”.
"I am a proud supporter of Godse, a Hindu, who killed #Gandhi quite late. Had the killer been someone else, #Gandhi could have been killed even earlier" – Lone BJP councillor Uma Anandan who won the ward 134 of #Chennai Corporation in the #TamilNadu #UrbanLocalBodyElection2022. https://t.co/yt0xrTmEGa pic.twitter.com/Pf4i5Pob9D
— சிலம்பரசன் (@chilamb_arasan) February 22, 2022
In an interview with Hindu Janajagruti last month, Anandan accused “conversion mafias” of killing Lavanya, 17-year-old school girl who allegedly committed suicide in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu last month.
“Majority Hindus don’t have the right to build their own institutions, whereas conversion mafias have freehand and state facilitates them & we continue to lose Hindu lives. There are umpteen cases like #LavanyaSuicide due to forcible conversion,” she said.
Crux is being a majority #Hindus don’t have right to build own institutions, where as #Conversion mafias have free hand + state facilitates them & we continue to loose #Hindu lives @umaanandansays @Indumakalktchi @entropied @SreeIyer1 @kk_jpr @Ramesh_hjs pic.twitter.com/wQtFsFnP4t
— Shriram L (@shriram_l) January 30, 2022
Anandan also spoke in favor of upholding the caste system in many interviews, saying “our culture will perish if there are no castes”.
Commenting on how the Justice Party, which later became the DK (Dravida Kazhagam), started the anti-caste movement in Tamil Nadu, she said, “They have been jealous of the Brahmins. They have always been survivors. The Justice Party was founded on Brahmin hatred because they could never digest the success of the Brahmins.”
Speaking further about the party founder and social reformer ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy, she said, “Education has always been the backbone of the Brahmin community. How will a fifth standard dropout know about education?”
“His (Periyar’s) followers are also empty-headed vessels going after him,” Anandan had said in an interview with The Jaipur Dialogues.
(Edited by Monami Gogoi)
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