Tamil Nadu: C Rajagopalachari’s great grandson joins BJP

Chennai: C R Kesavan, former Congress leader and great-grandson of India’s last Governor-General C Rajagopalachari, on Saturday joined the BJP.

In the last two days, Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, also in the Congress earlier, have joined the saffron party.

Kesavan quit all the Congress posts in February this year. He was a media panellist of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu.

In his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, he said, “I can no longer in clear conscience say that I concur with what party currently symbolises, stands for nor seeks to propagate. This is exactly why I had declined an organisational responsibility at the national level and refrained from participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.”

Thanking the BJP after his induction into the party, Kesavan said: “I want to thank you for inducting me into the world’s largest political party, the BJP, especially on a day when our Prime Minister is in Tamil Nadu.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s corruption-free governance and reform-led inclusive development agenda have transformed India from a fragile economy to the fifth largest in the world, he said.