In a setback for Kamal Haasan ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) General Secretary A Arunachalam joined the BJP on Friday in the presence of Union Minister Prakash Javedkar. Arunachalam, one of the founding members of the MNM, said he made the decision after Haasan refused to support the Center’s farm laws.
Addressing reporters, Arunachalam said that he felt blessed to join the saffron party on the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah have drawn up these three agricultural laws. Coming from a family of farmers, I know the benefits of them. When I urged my leader and the party’s high command to support the Center’s decision, they refused, ”Arunachalam said.
“On several occasions I told them not to consider the laws as an initiative of the BJP but as something that the Center had devised for the well-being of farmers. I told them that they are a centrist party and that if they do not support the government’s decision, there will not be much difference between them and the Opposition. But they continued to oppose the decision, “he added.
Arunachalan said that “it could no longer exist in a party that acts against the welfare of farmers.”
An earlier version of this article said that Arunachalam was Vice President of MNM. The mistake is regretted.
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