Tamil Nadu: BJP looking to replace Tamilisai Soundararajan?

By Supriya KrishnamurthyFirst Published May 31, 2019, 7:40 PM IST
Highlights

The BJP suffered one loss after another in the state of Tamil Nadu and is now looking to change things. Starting with finding a new state president to represent the party, in all likelihood, Tamilisai Soundararajan may lose her spot.

Chennai: Looks like it is bad news for Tamilisai Soundararajan as the BJP in Tamil Nadu is now frantically looking for a new president in the state to represent the party. The party has seen one failure after another in the state where it lost all the five seats it contested.

Word has it that it will now look for someone with an RSS background and who can chalk out an aggressive campaign.

Certain sections within the BJP have been highly critical of Tamilisai Soundararajan and rumours have been doing the rounds that for almost a year now, the BJP has been looking to replace her.

However, due to the onset of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and with Tamilisai herself contesting from Thoothukudi, the party had shelved the topic. Now that Tamilisai has been served defeat in Thoothukudi by DMK’s Kanimozhi, the BJP has revisited it.

With this defeat, Tamilisai has been criticised for her “weak leadership” and the BJP is now looking to replace her with a “more dynamic” leader. The party is now drawing up a rather long list of criteria to identify a strong contender who can make inroads into the state.

However, the BJP defended Tamilisai and stated that this was standard procedure as she has come to the end of her term.

“This change is going to be implemented nationally. The national president will change and so will the state presidents,” stated KT Raghavan, state secretary of the BJP. He further went on to say that this is nothing specific to Tamilisai.

MyNation also got in touch with political analyst Sumanth C Raman who said that this was because of the “disappointing performance that the BJP put up in Tamil Nadu.”

He further went on to explain, “Had the BJP done well and won a few seats that they contested and had Tamilisai herself won in the seat that she contested, things would have probably been different.”

When asked about who could be the potential contenders for the post, Sumanth C Raman said, “There is no clear frontrunner. There are a few seniors, but they might consider someone young.” He also named Vanathi Srinivasan who is the current general secretary, but said that he wasn’t too sure about it though.

Interestingly, Vanathi had earlier lost to Tamilisai Soundararajan to get a Lok Sabha ticket. The party is now looking for things to settle at the Centre before it picks up the matter in full swing.

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