TN BJP delegation to meet governor demanding sacking of TN Minister

Coimbatore: The BJP's Tamil Nadu unit will meet state Governor RN Ravi with two pleas on Sunday, including seeking the dismissal of state Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in connection with an alleged scam involving him.

BJP state president K Annamalai said the delegation will also seek regulation of state-run liquor sales in Tamil Nadu, alleging it was like a "horse running amok."

The Supreme Court had earlier allowed police and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into an alleged cash-for-jobs scam against Balaji, who also holds the Prohibition and Excise portfolio.

Speaking to reporters here, Annamalai said the BJP delegation will meet TN Governor RN Ravi on Sunday morning and present a memorandum to him seeking to advice state Chief Minister M K Stalin to sack Balaji from the cabinet.

"The Governor should take steps to dismiss Senthil Balaji from the council of ministers and advice the Chief Minister. It is untenable for him (Balaji) to continue in the cabinet after the SC verdict," he said.

The other issue the saffron party will highlight with Ravi would be hooch and liquor sales.

"Hooch is prevailing in every nook and corner of the state and it was evident in Villupuram and Chengalpattu," he said referring to the tragedy earlier this week in which 21 persons were killed after consuming spurious liquor in the two districts.

His party will stage protests across the state on Saturday on the issue, he added.

He alleged that those who cannot afford buying liquor from the state-run Tamil Nadu State Marketing Coproration (TASMAC) were turning to hooch.

While the BJP's policy was to "end" TASMAC, it will urge the Governor to "control" it as the retailer was like a "horse running amok," Annamalai said.

"Through TASMAC, the DMK government has turned Tamil Nadu into a drunkard state and we want this to be controlled," the BJP leader added.

He claimed that only if TASMAC (state-run liquor sales) was controlled will hooch be brought under control as both are inter-connected.