Tamil Nadu BJP IT wing chief CTR Nirmal Kumar quits saffron party, joins AIADMK

The AIADMK, on its official Twitter handle, posted that CTR Nirmal Kumar had joined the party as a basic member.

BJP state leaders targeted

Kumar, in a statement posted on Twitter, alleged that the state leadership of the saffron party was showing disregard towards party workers.

He also alleged that the state BJP chief K Annamalai was surveilling many party workers.

“There is nothing more demeaning than rejoicing at the surveillance of own party members and functionaries,” Kumar, a Madurai-based party worker, said.

என்னால் முடிந்த வரை பல சங்கடங்களை கடந்து கடந்த 1.5 ஆண்டுகளாக பயணித்தேன்!

உண்மையாக நேர்மையாக உழைத்தேன், வேதனை மட்டுமே மிச்சம்!

விடைபெறுகிறேன் 🙏 pic.twitter.com/jcXAtJroid

— CTR.Nirmal kumar (@CTR_Nirmalkumar) March 5, 2023

‘False allegations’

Responding to Kumar’s allegation, Amar Prasad Reddy, a close aide of Annamalai, outright rejected the “surveillance” charge as “baseless”.

“It is 100 percent a false allegation,” Reddy, president of Tamil Nadu BJP’s Sports and Skill Development Cell, told PTI.

Annamalai was keen on infusing young blood in the party ranks, and this resulted in nearly 60 percent of the posts now being held by those below the age of 30 years, he said.

The BJP state leader was “least bothered” with the personal and professional lives of party functionaries, and had given much importance to Kumar in the last few months, he said.

The BJP “is going ahead fast where the party will expect everyone to give 100 per cent,” he added.

Sometimes, some persons may not be able to deliver, Reddy said.

A controversial figure

Nirmal Kumar has had a chequered stint — to say the least — in the BJP over the past couple of years.

For example, the Madras High Court, on 17 November, restrained Kumar from making any defamatory tweets or statements against State Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji.

Balaji’s counsel, in a petition filed in the court, argued that Kumar was running a smear campaign against Balaji for the past several months by continuously making wild, false, and defamatory statements against him due to political reasons.

During his tenure in the BJP, Nirmal Kumar made headlines several other times due to some controversial tweets.

Two of the most prominent ones among them are the tweet against Aavin — a cooperative under the ownership of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited — since its products were halal certified, and against Rahul Gandhi.

Aavin issue

In September last year, several images surfaced on Twitter showing the halal certification on the pack of Aavin butter.

Tamil Nadu BJP workers initiated a campaign against it, claiming — without naming a specific community — that “they are trying to propagate their religion” at every opportunity.

Kumar tweeted: “Avadi Naser is using government machinery to propagate bigotry. Is that okay @CMOTamilnadu? [sic]”.

It was aimed at DMK leader SM Naser, claiming one wondered what the dairy minister had done.

The BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu alleged that the government facility was compromised and running for a specific religion.

However, Aavin Managing Director N Subbaiyan back then told South First that the controversy revealed the “ignorance” and “shallow mindset” of some people.

“Just like the ISO mark, the Halal certification is necessary for the export of products. It is a well-known process internationally. It is just to increase the acceptance level of the product. Only if it is Halal certified is it promoted among consumers in over 100 countries,” he explained.

Subbaiyan also highlighted that the Halal certification was done only for products meant for international export and not for the ones used for local consumption.

Tweet against Rahul Gandhi

Nirmal Kumar stoked another controversy in September last year with a tweet on Rahul Gandhi, which was widely deemed insensitive.

He shared an image of the Congress leader touching the palms of his niece Miraya Vadra.

The caption, loosely translated from Tamil, said, “I feel pity for the 10 members who go on a yatra with Pappu, who plays with kids applying Mehendi.”

Kumar deleted the tweet after facing backlash. He later told South First that the tweet had political motives.

In another tweet, he said his intention was never to bring anybody’s personal life into public, and people misunderstood his original Tamil tweet.

My intention is never to bring anybody’s personal life to public My Tamil Tweet about this @RahulGandhi was misunderstood.

Though I stand by contents of the tweet as it was purely a political comment & nothing wrong in it.

I’m deleting that tweet!

— CTR.Nirmal kumar (@CTR_Nirmalkumar) September 18, 2022

He also said in the later tweet that he stood by the contents of the deleted post as it was a purely political comment, and there was nothing wrong with it.

The original tweet drew severe criticism from the public and Congress leaders.

(With PTI inputs)