Tamil Nadu BJP to agitate on Sept 26 in Coimbatore over attacks on party offices & workers

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Tamil Nadu unit will conduct a protest on September 26 in Coimbatore against the ‘indiscriminate arrest’ of party workers, attacks on party offices and the comments made by DMK deputy general secretary and former Union Minister A Raja that were objectionable to Hindus and the Hindu Dharma. Notably, state party president Annamalai has also written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take cognisance of the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu.

“The functionaries of the saffron party will hold democratic protests and fill the jails in the state to highlight the indiscriminate arrest of party functionaries in different parts of Tamil Nadu,” state BJP leader K Annamalai said in a statement.

BJP workers arrested; Attacks on party, RSS offices

An RSS worker’s house in Madurai was attacked with petrol bombs on September 24, the police said. Assistant Commissioner Shanmugam said, “Three petrol bombs were thrown and we are investigating in this regard. No one was injured and damaged in the accident.” In another instance of similar attack on September 23, petrol bombs were hurled at an RSS functionary's residence in the Chitlapakkam area of Tambaram district. 

A BJP functionary, who is party’s Coimbatore unit president, Balaji Uthamaramasamy was arrested on September 21 for allegedly making objectionable comments against DMK founder E V Ramasamy and Raja. 

“Instead of taking legal action against the MP (A Raja) of the ruling party for defaming the Tamil race and Tamil women, the police have been arresting the BJP leaders and workers for protesting,” Annamalai said. In more action against the party workers, police arrested functionaries from Coimbatore North, Erode North, Tuticorin North, Virudhunagar West, Nilgiris and Chennai districts. 

Letter to Amit Shah

In the letter written by Annamalai to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, serious concern has been raised about the security of the volunteers of BJP and RSS in the light of the spate of incidents against these organisations. According to the letter, a total of 19 incidents have been reported by the party functionaries and police complaints in all the cases have been registered with the local police stations.

Image: PTI, Twitter/@ANI