Fact Check

BJP spreads fake news that PTR is scared of Annamalai and tweeted about quitting Politics !

Claim

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan is quitting politics as he is not able to take the scathing attack from Annamalai. “Today, for the first time since I left my professional career to enter public service 18 month ago, I wonder if I made the wrong choice – Finance Minister”.

Rating

Explanation

On August 13th 2022, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan attended a wreath laying cermony for the army soldier Lakshmanan. As he was coming back from the event, slippers were thrown at his car by a woman from BJP.

After the incident, PTR has jokingly tweeted that if “Cinderella” wants her slipper back, she can collect it from his staff. Earlier that day, there was a tension at the Madurai Airport as the BJP party cadres were claiming that the Finance Minister has verbally abused them.

Ever since this incident, there has been a war of words between Tamil Nadu BJP State President Annamalai and Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan. There was even an audio that leaked where TN BJP Chief Annamalai allegedly talked about how to politicise the happenings in Madurai. Annamalai agreed that it was his voice in the audio but he had accused DMK of editing the audio clipping.

With such tensions going on in the state, Annamalai had made a scathing attack on PTR and about his lineage and his career.

Archive link

After Annamalai’s tweet, BJP supporters in the state are claiming that the Finance Minister is unable to handle the attack from Annamalai and have started sharing a screenshot of a tweet allegedly made by PTR doubting whether he made the wrong choice of entering politics.

What’s the truth ?

The widely spread image that contains the tweet has a time stamp of 9:38 AM – Sep 1, 2022. Although the tweet is true, its not tweeted now in 2022 as per BJP’s claim. PTR had actually made this tweet on September 1, 2017.

Twitter link | Archive link

PTR had made a series of tweets following the death of Anitha, the medical aspirant who challenged the NEET exam in court and was waiting for the Union Government to make its stand clear in the matter. In his tweets, PTR mentioned that he being a father of 2 young children, couldn’t imagine the pain of Anitha’s parents and he is disgusted by the elected officials who were maneuvering till Mid-August to decide about the conduction of NEET which left the students & parents with no clarity and it also led them to situation where they are unable to take decisions.

Some of the BJP supporters have taken just the first tweet from the series of tweets and are wrongly claiming that it was made on September 1, 2022 and also claim that Tamil Nadu Finance Minister is scared of TN BJP State President Annamalai.

Conclusion

The claim that PTR is scared of Annamalai and also the tweet that is being circulated as being made recently is fake. PTR has not made any such tweets recently. A tweet by PTR made in 2017 following the death of medical aspirant and state topper Anitha is being circulated by some BJP supporters as being made in 2022.

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