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TN BJP expels two from party in connection with Raghavan sting video
The BJP also said that a committee is set-up to probe allegations of sexual misconduct against Raghavan. Both Ravichandran and Venba met state chief Annamalai on Wednesday and agreed to cooperate with the probe, the party said in its statement.
Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday expelled party member and YouTuber Madan Ravichandran, along with his associate G Venba, a day after they released a video state general secretary KT Raghavan’s sexually explicit chat with a woman, the party said in a statement. Raghavan resigned from his post on Tuesday after the video went viral on social media.
The BJP also said that a committee is set-up to probe allegations of sexual misconduct against Raghavan. Both Ravichandran and Venba met state chief Annamalai on Wednesday and agreed to cooperate with the probe, the party said in its statement.
“Madan and Venba have been removed from their party posts for releasing videos that go against the ideals of the party,” the statement signed by another state general secretary Karu Nagarajan read.
“We ask administrators and party cadres not to have any interaction with them in matters related to the party.”
The YouTube channel Madan Diary, with more than 141,000 subscribers, and through which Ravichandran uploaded the video, has been taken down. In the video, Ravichandran said he began to look into the issue based on allegations of sexual harassment and sexual exploitation of women by male leaders of the party in the state.
“I have video evidence of 15 BJP leaders but I’m releasing his video first because Mr K T Raghavan is promoted as Mr Clean by the media,” Ravichandran said in his piece to the camera.
Reacting to the controversy, Annamalai, who took over as the state BJP president last year, questioned Ravichandran’s intent behind threatening to release video evidence of more BJP leaders on social media. “This act of him is purely unacceptable,” Annamalai had said on Tuesday.
He confirmed Ravichandran had met him twice over this issue and sent him a text pressuring him to take action. Annamalai said he can only take action when the allegations are probed and proved and asked for the video evidence, but Ravichandran didn’t give it to him. “I stood firmly on my stand that disciplinary actions cannot be taken without knowing the real facts of the accusations. Therefore, I replied (to) him shortly in the message that ‘You may proceed if you want justice’,” he said.
Raghavan had taken to Twitter on Tuesday to announce he is resigning but denied all the allegations and said that the video was released to tarnish his image. Ravichandran said that the audio in the video is muted, and the woman’s identity is protected as she agreed to do the sting operation. Ravichandran joined the BJP last October.
