COIMBATORE: A day after the expulsion of a BJP functionary for releasing the video of a hotelier apologising to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Singanallur mandal president R Sathish claimed that he was ‘victimised’ in the controversial issue.
He said to the media that he will join the party after proving his innocence, once BJP state president K Annamalai returns from his foreign trip.
“In my 20 years of stint with BJP, I have grown in ranks to hold various posts. My post as ‘mandal’ president has already ended on 31 August. Also, the party’s district president J Ramesh Kumar has no authority to remove me from basic membership. In fact, the video itself was taken only by the district president, who was there in the meeting,” he said.
However, Ramesh Kumar said Sathish was expelled from the basic membership of the party only after getting the nod of senior party leaders.
The issue began with D Srinivasan, a popular hotelier in Coimbatore apologising to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for his dig on multiple GST rates for different food items, which triggered a political storm after a video of him seeking apology was released on social media.