BJP cadre instructed to cooperate with Annamalai

CHENNAI: Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh on Tuesday, after attending the state core committee meet, said that the party will form a strenuous alliance to elect Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third term and directed the state unit to focus on strengthening the party.

“The high command has decided to form a strenuous, potential alliance to elect Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third term. It may be late, but you (state-level functionaries) all have to do your work.

Strengthen the party from grass root level. Appoint two election in-charges to each Lok Sabha constituency. BJP should get an unprecedented vote percentage in Tamil Nadu in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. More attention should be given to LS constituencies in southern Tamil Nadu.”

Further, the high command representative advised the functionaries to fully cooperate with state president K Annamalai.

“Annamalai has emerged as a strong leader in the state. Like LK Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra, Annamalai’s ‘En Mann, En Makkal’ (My Land, My People) should have an impact on the upcoming elections.

Hence, every functionary should cooperate with him,” Santhosh said at TN BJP’s core committee meeting held at Kamalalayam on Tuesday.

The AIADMK has snapped ties with the BJP, which has been left alone in the field in TN. It has now started taking efforts to strengthen the party structurally.

“Santhosh also advised us not to talk about AIADMK. Annamalai was the cause of alliance break. Many senior functionaries have been working for the development of the party since its inception.

But, Santhosh went on talking as if it was the other functionaries of the party who were not cooperating with the state leadership and were hindering the development of the party,” rued a senior leader, who attended the meet, on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters after the meeting, state president Annamalai said, “There are days to decide alliance as elections are still six months away. At the time of election, the party leadership will decide on the alliance.

In today’s meeting, strengthening of booth committees, bringing the Narendra Modi-led NDA government’s achievements and DMK government’s malpractices to the people were discussed.” On raids, Annamalai said, “It is not true to say the I-T and ED raids are being conducted because of political vendetta.”

MoS L Murugan, senior leaders Pon Radhakrishnan, Vanathi Srinivasan and others were present.