Disquiet in Puducherry BJP over party legislators’ public event with controversial lottery baron’s son

The programme held to felicitate Class 10 and 12 passed students residing in Kamaraj Nagar constituency featured Jose Charles Martin, the son of Santiago Martin as chief guest

Serious concerns have been raised by a section of Bharatiya Janata Party on the conduct of some of its party legislators in roping in the son of lottery ‘king’ D, who is currently under the lens of Enforcement Directorate, as chief guest for an event on Sunday.

The programme held to felicitate Class 10 and 12 passed students residing in Kamaraj Nagar constituency featured Jose Charles Martin, the son of Santiago Martin as chief guest.

Also read: I-T proceedings against lottery baron Martin’s wife | Madras High Court refuses to interfere with transfer from Coimbatore to Kolkata

Hosted by party legislator representing Kamaraj Nagar Assembly segment, A. John Kumar, the event saw the participation of two other party MLAs- Richards John Kumar (son of John Kumar), P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram- and three Independents backing the party in the Assembly- M. Sivasankar, P. Angalane and Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok.

At the meeting, Mr Charles distributed gift boxes having his photograph to the successful students. The legislators showered encomiums on Mr Charles with Mr. Richards going to the extent of offering the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly seat to lottery baron’s son in the next Assembly polls. Visuals of Mr Angalane, Independent legislator and a senior politician in Puducherry, touching the feat of Mr Charles have also gone viral on social media.

The holding of such an event by three legislators, all of them turncoats, and by the Independents after their open rebellion following BJP’s defeat in Puducherry Lok Sabha seat, has angered a good number of party leaders, especially the ideologically committed old-timers in the saffron fold in Puducherry.

“We are certainly going to take up the issue at the next core committee meeting. The holding of such a meeting with the son of a controversial businessman and offering the seat to him publicly can be considered only as indiscipline and lack of interest in the growth of our party. Even our top leaders don’t individually make public announcements on someone’s candidature. And in this case, the person in contention is not even from UT,” a senior functionary told The Hindu.

Also questioning the timing of involving Mr Charles in a public event, a senior member of the party said, when BJP legislators were holding the meeting on Sunday, the ED was raiding the business units of his father. “What kind of messaging these MLAs were trying to send to the voters of UT by holding such an event. Individually, one of our leaders has brought up the issue and shared video footages of the event with national leadership. This kind of event cannot happen in any other State, especially when the party is in power. The events that are unfolding in the party after the Lok Sabha polls also reflect the organisational weakness now plaguing the Puducherry unit,” he said.

When contacted, BJP’s Puducherry unit in charge Nirmal Kumar Surana said “as far I know it was an annual event organised by the legislator. Other details I am gathering. Presently, the party machinery is fully concentrated on membership drive and organisational elections. We are having elections at Mandal and District levels in a democratic manner.”

Organisational Rehaul on Cards

Another top leader of the party told The Hindu that by mid-December or by end of the year, the Puducherry unit will have a completely new leadership. “The national leadership is seized of the issues here. We are going for a complete rehaul of party’s Puducherry leadership and machinery. A new team will be leading the party in the days to come,” he added.

Published - November 19, 2024 04:20 pm IST