Sleaze and Bungling: Tapes Haunt BJP in TN

The release of a sleaze video has already claimed the scalp of senior BJP leader KT Raghavan in Tamil Nadu, rattling the rank and file of the party. An intellectual face of the party, he had a very good rapport with the Central leadership and was seen as a future potential, writes MC Rajan, Bureau Chief, ETV Bharat, Chennai.

Chennai: Raging internal feud plaguing the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP has come into the open. Close on the heels of Tamil Nadu BJP General Secretary KT Raghavan quitting his post following the release of a sleaze video, audio tapes of purported conversations of BJP state President K Annamalai have come to haunt the saffron brigade. Now, the tapes have put Annamalai, who assumed office only last month, on the backfoot.

While accepting the resignation of Raghavan, a practising lawyer, the party had expelled Madan Ravichandran and his associate, Venba, from the primary membership of the party, for releasing the sleaze video. The party has also constituted a panel to inquire into the issue. A self-professed right-wing journalist, Madan, who prides himself as an enfant terrible, had carried out the sting operation and claims that he has many more in store. He had joined the party days before the April 2021 Assembly election.

When it was believed that the curtains were down with the expulsion and the blocking of his YouTube Channel, Madan has come out with a widely shared video, in which plays audio clips, purported to be conversations with Annamalai, claiming that the BJP state president had given the nod to release the video involving a woman member of the party and Raghavan. "You are bringing the curtains down on a person with 30 years of experience in politics... I am afraid, I can't help you," the tapes allege Annamalai. According to one of the clips, Annamalai is asking Madan's associate Venba, to be very careful of the consequences.

The tapes are Madan's counter to Annamalai's statement on Wednesday that he was not shown the sleaze video but was asked to take prompt action against Raghavan, who hails from an RSS background and has a reputation as an articulate leader. What was rumoured within the party has now come into the public domain. And according to Madan, the present self-serving leaders in the BJP were to blame for the failure to make the party a dominant force. "They have made it a laughing stock and be ridiculed as a contestant with NOTA," he says.

The sleaze scandal and the tapes, come two months after media reports of BJP general secretary CT Ravi warning functionaries of a 'Visakha Committee stepping into Kamalalayam, the BJP state headquarters' to probe sexual exploitation of party women by the leaders. He was reported to have made the remark at a post-election brainstorming session of the party in the middle of June at the coastal Mamallapuram. It was said that this followed complaints of sexual abuse flooding the Central leadership. Though Ravi had denied making such a comment, it appeared to provide a hint that the malaise was deep-rooted. For, earlier, a woman who had charged a state-level leader with sexual exploiting her a fleecing her financially was expelled and the issue was given closure.

Further, this development comes at a time when the party is making a determined effort to expand its sphere of influence, capitalising on the disarray in the opposition AIADMK so that it can be a counter to the ruling DMK. But, this had exposed the internal rivalry and groupism in the BJP as analysts opine.

None in the saffron party is ready to comment on the issue. "Our state president will respond to the development," said Karu Nagarajan, state General Secretary. And, for his part, Annamalai had posted a tweet saying, "Three things guide me and will continue to guide me. The vision of playing a small part wherein @BJP4TamilNadu coming to power. The pride of being a simple thondar (worker) of this great party is built on countless people's sacrifice. Nation first always and every time." It failed to satisfy a section of the BJP. Will this put a closure to the BJP washing dirty linen in public? It all depends on how the party proceeds further.