Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai was arrested for protesting against sexist remarks of a DMK orator. Saidai Sadiq, the DMK orator, had called BJP women from cinema background as “items”. 370 BJP Mahila Morcha members who took part in the protest have also been booked.

Saidai Sadiq had made very crass remarks against Khushbu Sundar, Gayathri Raghuram, Gowthami and Nameetha, actress-turned-politicians of BJP. He called them items and made sexual innuendos about Khushbu while talking about when she was in DMK. In colloquial language he said that DMK leader Elaya Aruna had sex with Actress Khushbhu several times. This section of his speech went viral in social media and attracted criticism.

TN BJP condemned this sexist attitude and demanded strict action from the DMK government. Even though the speech gained attention on October 27 itself, police were dragging their feet in booking Sadiq. Only after BJP announced a protest cyber crime police booked him under sections 153 (provocation with the intention to cause riot), 294(b) (obscene words in a public place), 505(1)(b) and 509 (insulting modesty of women) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act.

BJP had planned for a demonstration at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on November 2 but police refused to grant permission. The party went ahead with the protest and the participants including Annamalai were detained and booked under 6 sections for protesting without permission. Annamalai had criticised TN police force saying that it serves as Arivalayam, the headquarters of DMK. He alleged that higher positions in the force have been politicised.

In regard to the Coimbatore cylinder attack case, he attributed the intelligence failure to the department head’s bias. He accused ADGP Davidson Devasirvatham, the head of the state’s intelligence department, of having close ties with missionary organisations and hand picking officials to fill posts in the department.