CHENNAI: Amid growing confusion within the NDA and visible fault lines in the state BJP, national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh will chair a meeting of over 100 state BJP functionaries on September 16 (Tuesday), party sources said.
The BJP had recently appointed new office-bearers at the state, district and wing levels. Party insiders said the meeting is aimed at deliberating on the party’s roadmap in Tamil Nadu, alliance strategies and ways to address internal discord within the state unit.
“At present, we are struggling to put up a united face both within the party and the alliance. We hope the upcoming meeting will bring some clarity on the BJP’s strategy and future course of action,” one of the functionaries who will be attending the meeting said.
Trouble worsened in July when former CM O Panneerselvam quit the NDA, alleging neglect by the BJP. The exit of TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK and AIADMK leader KA Sengottaiyan’s call for a “united AIADMK” and his subsequent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah have led to confusion among the functionaries on where the party’s leadership stood with respect to the demand from within and outside the AIADMK for reinducting expelled leaders. BJP sources said Shah’s meeting with Sengottaiyan had unsettled sections of the state unit’s leadership.
“It is true that a unified AIADMK would be more powerful to win elections against DMK. But meeting an expelled leader from an ally sends wrong signals at a time when we are trying to project a united front,” said a senior functionary.
Meanwhile, party sources said that state president Nainar Nagenthran, who had gone to Delhi to attend Vice President CP Radhakrishnan’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, did not meet Shah to discuss the situation in the state.
Party’s supporters are also divided over the intentions of former state president K Annamalai, who commands a strong following within the party, despite him explicitly stating that he would work for the alliance’s victory and to make Palaniswami the CM.
Dhinakaran’s praising Annamalai while criticising Nagenthran escalated the situation, which has been worsened by the BJP leader’s recent remarks at a media conclave, in which he said DMK remained strong and that anti-incumbency is yet to set in.
Many BJP functionaries said the remarks were “unnecessary” and “counterproductive”. His supporters on social media have also been critical of Nagenthran, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Palaniswami.