Never allowed people involved in anti-social activities inside party, says former TN BJP state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan

CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan in a recent interview said that she was worried about the current state of affairs within the state party unit, adding that it was different when she was at the helm.

She stated that she never allowed people who were involved in anti-social activities inside the party when she was its president, alleging that such people were present currently. The former Puducherry and Telangana Governor also asserted that a strategic electoral alliance could have secured victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Tamilisai who resigned from her gubernatorial post to contest in the parliamentary polls, suffered defeat in the Tamil Nadu South Chennai constituency.

She had also recently opined that if the AIADMK and BJP had allied in the Lok Sabha elections, DMK's victory could have been thwarted in several seats, echoing former AIADMK minister SP Velumani's comments on the same.

Former state minister S P Velumani had blamed BJP state chief K Annamalai for the split in AIADMK-BJP ties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and claimed that had the poll alliance remained intact, the combine would have won 30-35 seats. He said that Annamalai had needlessly criticised AIADMK leaders including C N Annadurai, J Jayalalithaa and even Edappadi K Palaniswami, adding that the AIADMK-BJP alliance was going well when L Murugan and Tamilisai Soundararajan were state presidents and that they had never insulted the AIADMK leaders.