Chennai: BJP's Tamil Nadu IT Cell chief C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar on Sunday quit the party and joined the AIADMK in presence of its interim General Secretary K. Palaniswami.
There have been reports that Nirmal Kumar and BJP state chief K. Annamalai were not on good terms since last year.
Nirmal Kumar, in a social media post, said: "I travelled with the party for the past one and half years, despite facing a lot of problems and embarrassments. Despite working honestly and dedicatedly only anguish remains!".
He ended the message with "goodbye".
Blaming Annamalai for his decision, he charged that the party state chief of having "ill-treated" the party cadres and had snooped on them.
In a one-page letter released along with his resignation, Nirmal Kumar said: "The party is travelling on the path of disaster due to his one-man show attitude, without considering the party and its cadres."
He also claimed that while the party leader was overtly showing that he was against a DMK minister, he was having a discrete understanding with that minister. "As a whole, he is worse than the Dravidian model ministers. The person who is #420malai is not only dangerous to the state BJP but to the state as well."
The resignation of Nirmal Kumar is a major shock for the state BJP. BJP women leader and actor, Gayatri Raghuram had also quit the party earlier and OBC Morcha state leader Tiruchi Surya had also left recently.