Let AIADMK poach, it shows we are growing: TN BJP chief Annamalai

CHENNAI:  Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Tuesday claimed his party was growing in the State and this could be seen with the AIADMK admitting a few BJP functionaries into that party.

Insisting that certain "bold" decisions taken by him are likely to make some disgruntled party members to shift loyalties, Annamalai said he would expedite his decisions to achieve the party's target in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

"Its good they left. Let them go. Only then new roles could be assigned to new persons who will emerge as next-level leaders in the BJP," Annamalai told reporters when sought for his reaction to Tamil Nadu BJP IT Wing chief CTR Nirmal Kumar and State IT Wing secretary Dilip Kannan, quitting the BJP and joining the AIADMK in the presence of its interim general secretary K Palaniswami.

Both the leaders announced their decision on their respective Twitter sites accusing Annamalai of engaging in "surveillance" against many in the party.

There was a time when it was alleged that the BJP had to prosper only if leaders from the Dravidian parties joined it. "But our fortunes have changed. Now the Dravidian parties are growing with the entry of second, third and fourth-level leaders from the BJP. Let them poach. The situation is bound to change," Annamalai said before leaving for a party event in Madurai.

Those firm on the ideology will remain in the BJP, he added.

Asked if the latest developments would cause a rift in the alliance between the two parties, he shot back "I am not a manager of BJP to make idlis or dosa; but its president. I am a leader and will continue to take decisions like how late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa took without fear or favour."

His analogy was only to elucidate that he would take bold decisions befitting his position, he explained.

"I may go slow now. I will shift to top gears in the coming days to show result in the elections," the BJP chief said.

The AIADMK's decision to admit Nirmal Kumar and Dilip Kannan did not go well with a section of the BJP. Taking strong exception to it and alleging that the AIADMK had compromised on the alliance dharma, a handful of BJP youth wing members burnt a photo of Palaniswami in Kovilpatti in the southern coastal district of Thoothukudi in the State on Tuesday.

"Such is the politics of immature and half-baked," R M Babu Murugavel, AIADMK spokesperson, commented on the burning of Palaniswami's photos.

"It will be good if this continues, and what we have been expecting for a long time happens," Murugavel said in a tweet and added that a few in the BJP were trying to project themselves as bigger than the AIADMK.

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