Daijiworld Media Network - Chennai (SD)

Chennai, Sep 1: With a history of many party members with a criminal background, the Tamil Nadu BJP's unit has once again come into the scanner and was severely criticized for inducting history-sheeters into the party fold when on Monday August 31 Surya of notorious gangster 'Red Hills' had come to join the party. The BJP had to face an embarrassment as he fled the scene after seeing the cops, an event which was attended by the state party president L Murugan himself at Vandalur.

After receiving information about his presence, the Chengalpattu police rushed to the spot. Seeing the cops, Surya fled in a car while six persons with knives were nabbed and interrogated if they are connected to Surya.

Party state general secretary K T Raghavan stated that they sought the release of two of their party members as the BJP members staged a protest outside the police station. "Those two are our party members. We did not seek the release of the six," he said.

Surya has more than 50 criminal cases for various offences including murder, attempt to murder, using explosives as stated by the police. Gangsters Kalvettu Ravi and Sathyaraj were said to have recently joined the party.

Citing the incident, Raghavan said that hundreds were joining the party on a daily basis which makes it impossible to vet everybody's credentials. “None of these persons have joined separately. When there is an influx of members, one or two cases end up like this. We are being cautious about this,” he said.

Defending Kalvettu that he had openly said he wanted to turn over a new leaf, state vice president Vanathi Srinivasan said, “If you look at the DMK and the AIADMK, they too have people with criminal cases against them. A narrative is being created that only rowdies are joining the BJP. A large number of people with very good backgrounds are joining us as well.”