Chennai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu chief K. Annamalai can “become a national leader”, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh prophesied Tuesday — a move ally All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has termed a “damage control exercise”.
Singh was addressing a public meeting at Tambaram in Chengalpattu district as part of the BJP’s nationwide outreach to mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Seeking favour for Annamalai, Singh said that any amount of praise accorded to him would be “insufficient” given the way the state BJP chief was working under the leadership of PM Modi to implement his policies.
“I have been in politics for a long time. I recognize people. And after seeing Annamalai, I can say, sisters and brothers, your Annamalai will not only become a leader of Tamil Nadu but can become a national leader,” Singh said.
Addressing a public meeting in Chennai.
https://t.co/F2RsPhAWXa
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 20, 2023
His praise for Annamalai came in the backdrop of ally AIADMK’s demand for action against the former IPS officer over a purported jibe he made at AIADMK matriarch late J. Jayalalithaa in an interview earlier this month.
On 13 June, the AIADMK — led by former Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami — passed a resolution in a closed-door meeting calling Annamalai “inexperienced and irresponsible”. A senior party leader who did not wish to be named had told ThePrint then that the AIADMK was willing to reconsider its alliance with the BJP if the latter does not take a call on the demand for action against Annamalai.
Asked about Singh’s remarks in Chengalpattu, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan told ThePrint Wednesday, “Praise showered on Annamalai is a damage control exercise, with the resolution passed by the AIADMK.”
‘BJP has taken cognisance of the issue’
The BJP and the AIADMK have been at loggerheads since suffering a defeat at the hands of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led (DMK) Secular Progressive Alliance in the Erode East bypoll held in February this year.
Annamalai, who was appointed state BJP chief in July 2021, has been advocating that the party contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections without the AIADMK as an ally in Tamil Nadu. He reportedly made the suggestion as recently as March in a meeting of BJP’s state-level office-bearers. Such remarks invited strong retorts from the AIADMK leadership.
In April, both parties declared that they would continue their alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after EPS and other senior AIADMK leaders met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J.P. Nadda in Delhi in the presence of Annamalai and state BJP leaders.
While Annamalai’s remarks aimed at Jayalalithaa last month seem to have rocked the boat, the AIADMK has set the issue aside once again.
“The comment on Jayalalithaa is not an issue concerning the common man and is an issue between two parties who are allies. The BJP has taken cognisance of the issue,” said Sathyan.
Former AIADMK MP Dr J. Jayavardhan told ThePrint that his party never demanded Annamalai’s removal as state BJP chief. “We condemned his (Annamalai’s) speech against our past leader (Jayalalithaa) and our strong opinion was put out in the resolution against him,” he said. Jayavardhan further suggested that senior BJP leaders “who come here (Tamil Nadu) have to praise Annamalai so there is a confident following for him”.
‘Duplicity of character’
Meanwhile, in his speech Tuesday, Rajnath Singh also criticised Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin for his stand on state minister V. Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 14 June in connection with the alleged cash for jobs scam.
The ruling DMK has termed Balaji’s arrest a case of ‘vendetta politics’.
“My friend Stalin has been criticising PM Modi and investigating agencies over the arrest of his cabinet minister Senthil Balaji. Balaji has been arrested in a corruption case and Stalin himself called Balaji corrupt when he was in the AIADMK and demanded his arrest. Now, when his demand is met, he calls it political vendetta. This duplicity of character is unacceptable,” Singh said at the public meeting in Chengalpattu.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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