By Arun Janardhanan / The Indian Express
BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan who was included in the party’s Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday is one of the party’s senior woman leaders and the national president of the Mahila Morcha, its women’s wing.
The 52-year-old has close ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). She was mentored by Pon Radhakrishnan, a veteran BJP leader from south Tamil Nadu who has been on the sidelines since new leaders such as Tamilisai Soundararajan, L Murugan, and current state president K Annamalai emerged. Srinivasan’s home turf is Coimbatore South, which she represents in the Assembly. She is one of the party’s four MLAs in Tamil Nadu.
Srinivasan’s entry into politics was through a Vivekananda study circle that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a students’ organisation affiliated to the RSS, ran on college campuses. A moderate figure in the party like former BJP state chief Soundararajan, she lost the 2011 Assembly election from Chennai’s Mylapore constituency and then again from Coimbatore South in 2016. She won the Assembly polls last year in her third attempt.
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