Chennai: The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP has got a new band of state office-bearers and it appears to have the stamp of the Union minister of state for road transport, highways and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan albeit the state unit having a vociferous speaker — Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan as its president.
Though according to sources in the party, “social engineering” principle has been maintained in nominating about 59 office-bearers at state level, several of them are familiar faces who had held the brief during the tenure of Mr Pon Radhakrishnan as president. After he got elected as MP from Kanyakumari Mr Radhakrishnan, familiarly known as Ponnar was elevated as Union minister. Dr Tamilisai stepped into his shoes during the second three-year tenure of Mr Radhakrishnan in 2014 and she was retained as party president in January this year. Following the completion of the party’s inner election, new office-bearers were announced for various organisations, and on Saturday new office-bearers were announced for the TN unit.
As per the new list the party will have 10 vice presidents: M.R. Gandhi, S. Surendran, Munaivari Begum, D. Kuppuram, Suba Nagrajan, M. Subramanian, S.P. Saravanan, B.T. Kumar, M.N. Raja and Sivakami Paramasivam. Vice president Vanathi Srinivasan has been elevated to the post of general secretary, which is an exofficio member to represent the party’s core committee.
