Jayakumar has no qualifications to talk about Annamalai: BJP

CHENNAI: In a stern warning to its alliance partner, the State vice president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Karu Nagarajan, on Monday condemned the speech of former minister D Jayakumar for his remarks about State BJP president K Annamalai.

"Former minister D Jayakumar's statements about our leader K Annamalai are highly condemnable. He did not even read our leader's interview to the English daily. He enjoys giving interviews every day. He has no qualifications to talk about our leader. Our leader has been determined from the beginning to speak out against corruption. He (Annamalai) keeps saying that the system is not right in Tamil Nadu. He is also determined to fix the system for the benefit of the people of the state and for the development of the state. It is well known to the people of Tamil Nadu that he always speaks as it is," he said in a statement.

Further, he said that Annamalai did not come into politics because of a desire for a position he had come into politics with various new plans and dreams of people's lives being prosperous and he is never going to change.

"It is politicians like Jayakumar who need to change themselves. Jayakumar is sitting on the top of a tree branch and cutting the base of the branch. You are the only one affected by such interviews. BJP is the largest political party in the world with 19 crore members and he calls it a plant. I do not understand from what position he is speaking. I think Amit Shah's participation in the Chennai (south) Parliamentary constituency workers' meeting must have frustrated Jayakumar. He would be worried that the seat his son Jayawardhan wants to contest will be lost. An alliance means everyone joining in and no one has a role as a master in this. Therefore, I request the AIADMK Organising Secretary not to divert Annamalai's English interview to the press and create chaos in the alliance," he added.