Forty days after she was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party, actor-politician Gayathri Raghuram, on Tuesday, quit the Tamil Nadu BJP, blaming state president K. Annamalai for her decision.
On Tuesday, in a series of tweets, Raghuram announced her resignation from the party, alleging that women are not safe in BJP under Annamalai’s leadership.“I was being targeted and trolled by my own party men on the instructions of Annamalai for a tweet saying that I missed Kasi Tamil Sangam event as the in-charge of overseas and other state wing,” Gayathri told THE WEEK.
Gayathri who joined the BJP in 2014, much before Annamalai, was suspended by him on November 22 for anti-party activities. She was suspended for openly criticising Annamalai’s decision to induct Suriya Siva, son of DMK MP who had verbally abused a woman office bearer of the party over the phone. Gayathri had then called out Annamalai for not taking action against Surya Siva.
“There are many IT wing teams working from various locations out of Chennai for Annamalai which engage in trolling our own party office bearers,” Gayathri alleged. Blaming Annamalai and his supporters for trolling her in social media, she said, “he does character assassination.”
The ongoing feud between Gayathri and Annamalai widened after her trip to Dubai for a party event on October 16. “He was waiting to take action against me after this event,” she alleged. Incidentally, when Surya Siva and Daisy issue came up and Gayathri criticised Annamalai’s decision to standby Surya, she was suspended from the party, she alleged.
“In a closed door meeting, in front of 150 office bearers, he did character assassination against me. Is this the quality of a leader?” She asked. Gayathri also alleged that women are not safe in BJP. “Women representation in Tamil Nadu BJP is very poor. At any public meeting, women are not allowed to come on stage. There are only three women among 66 district secretaries in Tamil Nadu BJP,” she pointed out.
In her tweet on Tuesday she said she had audio and video proof of all the alleged women abuse in the party. Clarifying her tweet she told THE WEEK, “I will raise a police complaint against Annamalai asking him to release all the audio and video tapes.”
However, Gayathri was sidelined from the party after Annamalai took over as the state president and she was stripped off from the post of cultural wing leader. Later, she was made in-charge of the overseas and other state wing of the TN BJP.
Reacting to her allegations, TN BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy said all her allegations are “untrue” and she was suspended for anti-party activities.