CHENNAI: Senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar on Tuesday said unlike the BJP, the AIADMK wasn’t hunting for people and ridiculed BJP state president K Annamalai as a “merchant” who set up a shop that has no business.

The party and its leadership attracted cadre and functionaries of various political parties and it was organic. Unlike the BJP and its leadership, the AIADMK did not indulge in poaching people from other parties, Jayakumar told reporters while responding to a question over a war of words between AIADMK and its former ally BJP over roping in cadre from each other’s camps.

Jayakumar responded in negative when asked about party MLA Amman K Arjunan’s announcement that two of the BJP MLAs would be joining the AIADMK by Tuesday afternoon and said, “I was unaware about such news.”