Former south Chennai district president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, Karate R. Thiagarajan, who was suspended from the party last year, joined the BJP on Thursday in the presence of BJP national general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu C.T. Ravi, at a public meeting in Mylapore.
Mr. Thiagarajan, a confidant of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, was most recently associated with actor Rajinikanth, who finally decided that he will not take the political plunge. The State BJP leadership held talks with Mr. Thiagarajan recently, and the former Deputy Mayor of Chennai told them that he wished to start a political movement in Chennai to take on the DMK. He finally joined the BJP on Thursday.
Earlier in the evening, producer, actor and son of late actor Sivaji Ganesan, Ramkumar Ganesan, and his son Dushyanth Ramkumar joined the BJP at its headquarters.
