Chennai: State BJP president K Annamalai called on former State president of the party, Tamilisai Soundararajan, at her residence in Virugambakkam on Friday with a packet of sweets and ironed out the differences that had cropped up between them of late, much to the delight of many party cadre who exulted in social media over the development.
Acknowledging the past good work of Soundararajan during her stint as State President, Annamalai, in a message on X, affirmed that definitely ‘the Lotus will bloom in Tamil Nadu’ - a phrase that the former State chief was known to use at every platform and get trolled for it then.
He said that her political experience and advice was giving an impetus for the growth of the party continuously, thus putting an end to all speculations that both the leaders were at loggerheads and uploaded a photograph in which both were posing together with the sweet packet.
With Soundararajan speaking out against the State BJP unit in the media, alleging that rogue elements had come in, and warning of action against those, from within the party, who were trolling her on social media, it was presumed that there was a rift with the party.
When Union Home Minister Amit Shah was seen giving what looked like a dressing down to Soundararajan on the stage from which Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu took oath of office at Vijayawada on Wednesday, his apparent displeasure was attributed to the rift in the State unit.
Though Soundarajan refused to comment on the incident to mediapersons when she landed in Chennai from Vijayawada after the swearing in – by then the video of the interaction between Shah and Soundararajan had gone viral – she later on clarified through social media that Shah had only asked about the post poll ‘follow up and challenge faced.’
She claimed that Shah had advised her to carry out the political and constituency work intensively in the short time that they had to converse and that was reassuring. On Friday she expressed happiness over her ‘loving younger brother’ meeting her.
Since the encounter with Shah created a flutter in the political circles, both the leaders might have decided to bury the hatchet and put up a show of unity, it is widely felt.
