S Vijayadharani, the three-time Congress MLA from the Vilavancode constituency in Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari district, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, February 24. She joined the saffron party in the presence of the BJP’s National General Secretary Arun Singh and Union Minister L Murugan at the party's headquarters in New Delhi. Over the past couple of weeks, there was speculation that she would join the BJP. However, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee had denied such claims.
However, a week after the new head of the Tamil Nadu Congress unit was selected, the Vilavancode MLA tendered her resignation at the Congress office and joined the BJP. The resignation which comes close on the heels of the Lok Sabha elections has attracted major criticism from senior Congress leaders. Manickam Tagore, MP of Virudhunagar, called her action a betrayal.
Vijayadharani was the General Secretary of All India Mahila Congress and the Chief Whip of the Tamil Nadu Congress Legislature Party (CLP). She was first elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in 2011 from Vilavancode, from where she went on to consecutively win the next two assembly elections as well.
Vijayadharani wanted to contest in the Kanniyakumari by-elections following the death of MP Vasanthakumar. However, the Congress party fielded Vasanthkumar's son Vijay Vasanth. The political sources speculated that there was resentment over the party's choice when Vijayadharani was denied a ticket to contest from Kanniyakumari. Meanwhile, she was also very unhappy that Selvaperunthagai was selected as the new president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, according to the sources.
Ahead of the General Elections 2024, Vijayadharani joined the BJP and now, she is expected to contest from the Kanniyakumari constituency where Congress and BJP would have a neck-to-neck battle.