Disquiet in Puducherry BJP over party legislators’ public event with controversial lottery baron’s son

BJP legislators face backlash for hosting event with son of lottery 'king' D, sparking internal party turmoil in Puducherry.

Serious concerns have been raised by a section of Bharatiya Janata Party on the conduct of some of its party legislators in roping in the son of lottery ‘king’ D, who is currently under the lens of Enforcement Directorate, as chief guest for an event on Sunday.

The programme held to felicitate Class 10 and 12 passed students residing in Kamaraj Nagar constituency featured Jose Charles Martin, the son of Santiago Martin as chief guest.

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Hosted by party legislator representing Kamaraj Nagar Assembly segment, A. John Kumar, the event saw the participation of two other party MLAs- Richards John Kumar (son of John Kumar), P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram- and three Independents backing the party in the Assembly- M. Sivasankar, P. Angalane and Gollapalli Srinivas Ashok.

At the meeting, Mr Charles distributed gift boxes having his photograph to the successful students. The legislators showered encomiums on Mr Charles with Mr. Richards going to the extent of offering the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly seat to lottery baron’s son in the next Assembly polls. Visuals of Mr Angalane, Independent legislator and a senior politician in Puducherry, touching the feat of Mr Charles have also gone viral on social media.

The holding of such an event by three legislators, all of them turncoats, and by the Independents after their open rebellion following BJP’s defeat in Puducherry Lok Sabha seat, has angered a good number of party leaders, especially the ideologically committed old-timers in the saffron fold in Puducherry.

“We are certainly going to take up the issue at the next core committee meeting. The holding of such a meeting with the son of a controversial businessman and offering the seat to him publicly can be considered only as indiscipline and lack of interest in the growth of our party. Even our top leaders don’t individually make public announcements on someone’s candidature. And in this case, the person in contention is not even from UT,” a senior functionary told The Hindu.