Chennai: K. Annamalai, president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said Sunday that he is firmly in the saddle for now and has been given a road map from the party leadership for the next five years.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, the IPS-officer-turned-politician said, ”In the past 15 days, our PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, and BJP national president J. P. Nadda made my role in the party, and what is expected of me, clear to me.”
He added: “A road map has been given to me for the next five years and as a karyakarta [functionary], my job is to obey their orders.”
Party sources had earlier told ThePrint, that in a closed-door meeting on 18 March Annamalai had purportedly said he’ll step down if the party continues to be in alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
Coming on the back of a power tussle between the two parties over the poaching of each other’s cadre, Annamalai’s statement on not wanting an alliance with AIADMK could perhaps have been the BJP’s attempt at communicating that it doesn’t want to play second fiddle to the regional party, political observers had told ThePrint.
On Sunday, the BJP Tamil Nadu president, however, said he would continue in the position even if AIADMK remained an ally.
The BJP state chief also said that the party’s ‘En Mann, En Makkal‘ (My land, My people) yatra in Tamil Nadu, in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, will expose corruption in the state. The yatra is scheduled to begin in June.
“BJP is against corruption,” Annamalai said.
Also read: ‘When Tamil Nadu grows, India grows’: How PM Modi pitched BJP’s vision for state in Chennai
‘Honourable and equitable alliance’
Annamalai’s statement on the BJP’s roadmap for the next five years comes amidst reports of the BJP-AIADMK alliance being in troubled waters.
Last week top AIADMK leadership met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda in Delhi. Annamalai was also present at the meeting.
A senior Delhi-based BJP functionary, speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, said, “Presence of Annamalai was enough to send a message to AIADMK that party leadership is standing unitedly with Annamalai.”
Similarly, the Delhi meeting also made it clear that the BJP-AIADMK alliance was intact and will continue for the 2024 parliamentary polls, the BJP functionary added.
Confirming this, Annamalai said the AIADMK was the bigger alliance partner in the state, but added, “We will go into the Lok Sabha election with Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate and face of the NDA alliance”.
As far as the alliance in Tamil Nadu is concerned, “The BJP should have an honourable and equitable position in the alliance”, Annamalai added.
Corruption allegations
The state BJP chief Sunday also spoke about the corruption allegations that he has levelled at the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the past few weeks.
In a purported expose last month, titled the ‘DMK Files’, Annamalai has alleged that CM M.K. Stalin, had received a kickback of Rs 200 crore in 2011, for alleged favouring of tender for phase 1 work of the Chennai Metro Line project in 2011. Stalin had then been the deputy CM of the state.
“I was told that six others too have filed complaints [regarding the favouring of tenders]. A firm which had taken part in the bidding process has filed a complaint,” Annamalai claimed Sunday.
Commenting on the raids conducted by the Income Tax (I-T) Department last week regarding the alleged tax evasion involving G Square Realtors, Annamalai said, “The raid is going on for six days. We can assume that the quantum of material is heavy”.
The BJP has alleged that owners of the construction firm are close to the ruling DMK, which is why the revenue of the real estate firm had swelled since the current government under Stalin was formed in 2021.
On Sunday, Annamalai said the current raids were not related to the allegations made by BJP.
In a statement it issued, G Square Realtors had said it has been subjected to “unwarranted persecution” over the last couple of months through “unfounded allegations with no evidence”.
Last month BJP leaders had widely shared an unverified audio on social media, purportedly of Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR), in which he allegedly said how Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin’s son, Udhayanidhi, and his son-in-law V. Sabareesan have “realised they have made more money in one year… now it is getting into a problem”.
Talking about the clip, Annamalai told reporters that he was ready to produce the original audio if a complaint is filed.
PTR has claimed that the clip purported to be his was “fabricated”.
On the legal notice issued by DMK MP and deputy general secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi seeking Annamalai’s unconditional apology for the allegations made in the ‘DMK Files’, he said his allegations were about wealth accumulation by DMK leaders.
Meanwhile, allegations made against the DMK by the BJP were also taken up by ally AIADMK, with party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) questioning CM Stalin’s silence on the corruption allegations levelled by the BJP and the purported PTR audio clip, while speaking to party cadres in Salem Sunday.
“Corruption is rampant in the DMK regime. An audio clip where the finance minister alleges that the chief minister’s son and son-in-law are involved in Rs 30,000 crore corruption was circulated on social media recently,” said EPS, adding, “The finance minister says his voice was cut and pasted. The chief minister is yet to deny the claim or respond to it but remains silent”.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)