DMK defector V P Duraisamy appointed vice-president of BJP Tamil Nadu unit

Former Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly V P Duraisamy, who joined the BJP after quitting DMK recently, was on Friday appointed vice-president of the party's state unit.

Duraisamy had been stripped of his post as DMK deputy general secretary a day before he joined the saffron party (on May 22) for his remark that India was in "safe hands" with the BJP.

"You can protect the country if you accept the BJPs ideology," he had said after calling on Murugan who was appointed president of the BJP's TN unit in March this year replacing Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan following her elevation as Telangana Governor.

Apart from him, Vanathi Srinivasan, who is state general secretary, M Chakravarthy and Nainar Nagendran were among the 10 vice-presidents, appointed by Murugan on Friday.

Actresses Madhuvanthi Arun, Gauthami, 'Kutti' Padmini and Namitha have been appointed as State executive committee members while actress Gayathri Raghuram is the new president of the arts and culture wing, according to a party statement.

Paul Kanakaraj, who merged his Tamil Maanila Katchi with the BJP, is the new president of the BJP legal wing.

K T Raghavan, G K Selvakumar, Prof R Srinivasan and Karu Nagarajan have been named state general secretaries while K Shanmugam, Dolphin Sridar and T Varadharajan among others have been appointed as state secretaries. S R Sekar is the state treasurer.

Murugan also announced new office bearers for the partys state units including for five districts, apart from new secretaries, presidents of various wings, national general council members, new spokespersons, district observers and state executive committee members.

Picture Credit: Tamil Nadu BJP