Actor and politician Gautami Tadimalla announced her resignation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on social media ending her 25-year association with the party. Gautami had tagged BJP President JP Nadda, BJP Tamil Nadu leader K Annamalai and the official BJP handles on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
In a letter she posted on X, Gautami wrote, ““It is with a very heavy heart and deep disillusionment that I have taken the decision to resign my membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party. I had joined the Party 25 years ago to contribute my efforts towards Nation building. Even through all the challenges I have faced in my life, I have honoured that commitment. Yet today I stand at an unimaginable crisis point in my life and find that not only do I not have any support from the Party and leaders, but it has also come to my knowledge that several amongst them have been actively helping and supporting the very person who has betrayed my trust and cheated me of my life earnings.”
She went on to state that she had been working since the age of 17 and had worked for 37 years across cinema, television, radio and digital media. “I have worked my entire life so that I can be financially secure at this age as well as provide for my daughter’s future. I am at the point where my daughter and I should have been settled, safe and secure, and yet I found to my horror that Mr. C Alagappan has swindled me of my money, property and documents,” wrote Gautami.
“Mr. Alagappan had approached me around 20 years ago seeing my vulnerability and isolation, as I was not only an orphan who had just lost both my parents, but also a single mother with an infant child. He insinuated himself and his family into my life under the guise of a caring elder person. It was in this situation around 20 years ago that I entrusted him with the sale and documents of several of my lands, and it was just recently that I discovered he had defrauded me of the same; all while pretending to welcome me and my daughter as a part of his family. In order to recover my hard-earned money, properties and documents, I have followed the laws, rules and processes of our country just as every Indian citizen must, with full respect and faith that I will receive justice. I have filed a series of complaints with complete trust in my Chief Minister, my police department and my judicial system, but I find that the process has been inexplicably dragging on,” stated Gautami in the letter.
Despite the fact that she was promised a seat in the 2021 TN Assembly Elections by the BJP in the Rajapalayam constituency and had worked at the grassroot level there, the BJP never honoured the commitment, she said. Gautami accused members of the party of allegedly helping Alagappan in ‘dodging justice and absconding’.
“Regardless, I maintained my commitment to the Party. However even after 25 years of steadfast loyalty to the Party, it is shattering to realise that there is a complete lack of support and moreover that several senior members of the BJP have been enabling Mr. Alagappan in dodging justice and absconding since the last 40 days even after the FIRS have been filed.