No leadership roles for women: Tamil Nadu Congress MLA joins BJP

New Delhi: A three-time Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu, S Vijayadharani, left the party and joined BJP on Saturday, claiming that women are not given leadership roles in the former. Vijayadharani is the MLA from Kanyakumari's Vilavancode, where BJP had won in the past, PTI reported.

She joined the party in the national capital in the presence of Union Minister L Murugan and the party's national secretary Arvind Menon, who is the poll in-charge for Tamil Nadu. She posted her letter of resignation from Congress before joining the BJP on X.

"I am resigning from the position of primary membership and related posts held by me in the Congress party," NDTV quoted her post.

NDTV reports that she quit Congress, stating that the party do not give leadership roles to women. She pointed out that someone junior to her was made the leader of the legislature party. She claimed that she had joined the BJP so that she would be able to fulfil Kanyakumari's infrastructure requirements with the help of the Union government.

The media predicts that the new development is a boost to BJP in the southern state. The saffron party was hit by a setback after AIADMK cut ties with it recently. In the last general elections- in 2019- BJP couldn't win even a single from Tamil Nadu. But political observers opine that Vijayadharani leaving Congress would not help BJP because people voted her to victory only because she was in Congress and the party was allied with DMK.