Newsmaker | Who is Tamilisai Soundararajan, the BJP leader ‘admonished’ by Amit Shah?

Former Tamil Nadu BJP chief and ex-Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan who was in the news for much of last year over her run-ins with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-led Telangana government finds herself in the news yet again. This time it is over a viral video clip that is being interpreted by a section of BJP leaders as Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s “admonishment” of her “unwarranted public comments” against current Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai.

The video came days after Soundararajan in an interview to a YouTube channel suggested that the party might have fared better had its alliance with the AIADMK remained intact, a view that is not in line with that of Annamalai.

“I used to discourage and ignore anti-social elements from the party. But recently, a lot of such elements have entered the party and hold positions in some districts. Such practices should be prevented, and ordinary cadres who are working hard for the party should get their deserving space. That doesn’t mean that I think he (Annamalai) is a bad leader. Not at all, different leaders take decisions in different ways,” Soundararajan said.

On Wednesday, several BJP handles shared a video of an interaction between Shah and Soundararajan while on stage at Chandrababu Naidu’s swearing-in as Andhra Pradesh CM. Karthik Gopinath, state vice-president of the BJP’s social media cell, shared it on social media with the caption: “That looks like a strong admonishment from Amit Shah ji to Tamilisai akka. But what could be the reason for this ‘public’ warning? Unwarranted public comments?”

The daughter of former state Congress chief Kumari Ananthan, Soundararajan has been an influential figure in the BJP for over a decade, diverging from her family’s