Shah’s ‘stern’ message raises heat amid TN rift
New Delhi, June 12
A video grab featuring a visibly angry Union Home Minister Amit Shah in conversation with BJP Tamil Nadu leader Tamilisai Soundararajan on stage during the oath-taking ceremony of Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu brought the ongoing friction in the BJP Tamil Nadu unit to the fore.
In a short 18-second clip, Soundararajan is seen greeting Shah and former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and walking past them.
However, Shah calls her back and is seen to be delivering a stern message to her. Former Telangana Governor Soundararajan unsuccessfully contested the Chennai South Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu this time and has publicly stated that a BJP-AIADMK alliance would have helped the party.
BJP state chief K Annamalai, on the other hand, was opposed to the alliance. Pointing to the Shah’s clip, party’s Tamil Nadu social media cell functionary Karthik Gopinath in a post on X today said, “That looks like a strong admonishment from Amit Shah ji to Tamilisai akka? What could be the reason? Unwarranted public comments?”
Earlier, Tamilisai who was the state BJP chief from 2014 to 2019 had said, “I had a yardstick when I was the BJP chief and I did not encourage anti-social elements… but recently anti-social elements have been taken back into the party.”
The BJP did not win a single seat in Tamil Nadu though its vote share rose from 3 per cent to 11 per cent. The anti-Annamalai camp has been saying that the BJP had got a lesser vote share in 2024 after contesting 23 seats than it scored in 2014 when it contested only nine seats.
