Tamil Nadu BJP chief in trouble after saying he wanted sleaze tape out

Chennai: The youngest BJP President in Tamil Nadu, Annamalai Kuppusamy, has landed in controversy nearly a month after taking over as chief following an audio clip in which he is allegedly heard commanding to go ahead with the release of a sleaze video featuring another senior BJP leader.

The sleaze tape was a video call of a senior state leader and a woman party worker. The ordeal had embarrassed the party. KT Raghavan, the General Secretary of Tamil Nadu BJP and a senior RSS leader quit from his post after the tape of the video call surfaced. He called the sting operation "an attempt to tarnish" him and the party.

YouTuber Madan Ravichandran and his associate MS Venba released the video. He has been expelled from the party. He has alleged that he has evidence of exploitation against 15 leaders in the Tamil Nadu BJP unit.

In the new audio, Annamalai is heard saying: "Call is yours. How would you want to do it? If you publish (the video) then I would expel them all in a matter of one or two hours. If you don't publish then it is a bigger headache for me. I have to show this to all, convince all and expel two every month. Hope you are understanding," reported NDTV. The authenticity of the audiotape hasn't been verified yet.

Ravichandran said that they released KT Raghavan's video first because he always projected himself as Mr Clean. He added that his goal was an internal probe but released the video after Annamalai gave his consent.

Former IPS officer Annamalai quit the service to join politics. He became state unit president in July 2021.