Krishnagiri: In a significant acknowledgement of the role forest-dwellers and tribals play in building the economy, BJP is now strongly wooing them in Tamil Nadu.
The first signals of that trend came alive in Krishnagiri district.
Nearly 15 years after “Sandalwood” Veerappan was killed by the special task force in neighbouring Dharmapuri district, the forest brigand is back again under media glare, but this time for better reasons, as his elder daughter Vidya Rani has joined the BJP.
The girl who, like her mother braved many police harassments, joined the BJP on Saturday in the presence of party’s national general secretary Muralidhar Rao and former BJP minister Pon Radhakrishnan.
The joining function of inducting the slain brigand’s daughter and others into the BJP-fold was held at a private marriage hall here in Krishnagiri.
Vidya Rani avoided talking to reporters when they approached her at the venue to know why she liked to join the saffron party, when her mother Muthulakshmi was running her own outfit after Vearappan’s death.
Earlier, Vidya Rani was in the news because of her love marriage with Mariya Deepak, a Christian.
Their marriage took place in 2011 against the wishes of the brigand’s widow and the girl’s mother Muthulakshmi.
Earlier at Hosur, Ponnar, speaking to journalists, accused that the women who chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan in Bengaluru during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest rally led by MIM leader Owaisi there, under the alleged guidance of DMK leader M.K. Stalin.
He welcomed the Tamil Nadu government’s Bill declaring key Cauvery delta districts as protected agricultural zone. Shri. Ponnar was also hopeful that the party high command in Delhi would soon appoint the state BJP president.
