Chennai: The chinks in the Tamil Nadu unit of BJP are in the full public glare. On Tuesday, the party barred its OBC wing leader from party events after an audio clip in which he is purportedly heard using abusive language against a woman colleague went viral, and removed an actor from her posts for alleged anti-party activities.
BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai said the telephonic conversation between the party's State General Secretary, OBC Morcha, Trichy Surya Siva and state BJP minority wing head Daisy Saran "came to my knowledge."
A one-man disciplinary panel has been asked to submit a report on the matter to the party high command within a week and till that time "we advise Surya Siva not to attend party programmes," Annamalai said in a statement, uploaded on the state BJP's official Twitter handle. Surya, son of senior DMK leader and the party's Rajya Sabha MP Trichy Siva, had joined the BJP in May this year.
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In a separate statement, Annamalai announced the suspension of actor Gayathri Raguramm for six months from all her party posts for "repeatedly violating party discipline and bringing disrepute" to it. Among others, she is State President of Other State and Overseas Tamil Development and Art and Culture State wing.
This action against Gayathri comes after she sought the arrest of Surya Siva for his verbal abuse against Daisy. Reacting to the suspension, Gayathri tweeted: "He always wanted me out from day one. I will come back stronger."
The leaked audio of the conversation between Surya Siva and Daisy Saran surfaced on social media on Monday. The argument between them was about a party post. Surya, who recently quit DMK to join BJP, used expletives against Daisy and gave murder threats. Following the leak, Gayathri put out a thread on her Twitter handle lashing out Surya Siva and called for his arrest and removal from the party.
