The rise of Rajenthra Balaji: From poster boy to master of vitriol

The alliance between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) raised many eyebrows ever since they joined hands. Ministers from Tamil Nadu’s ruling party are often seen giving the acts of the Narendra Modi-led government a nod via their speeches.

However, it went overboard when recently Tamil Nadu state Milk and Dairy development department minister K.T. Rajenthra Balaji, in an interview Puthiya Thalaimurai, said that if members of Hindu religion are continued to be killed, it’ll be inevitable to contain communal violence.

His statement came in light of a BJP functionary’s murder in the state last month, making people doubt whether he is a member of AIADMK or the BJP.

It has also been noticed that the minister’s speeches are becoming more malicious and unfounded with each passing day, including his blind support towards Rajinikanth in the Periyar issue which even countered his party’s ideology.

Also read: Rajinikanth kicks up a storm, but are party organs doing their job?

Responding to Rajenthra’s justification for Vijaya Raghu’s murder, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M.K. Stalin urged Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to take strict action against him as he felt that it is condemnable that a minister speaks diatribe with venom in heart.

“The minister took oath according to the Constitution. DMK has not bothered about AIADMK’s obeisance to BJP, but now he speaks against secularism. He tries to divide people on the basis of religion. The Governor should remove him from the cabinet and must take action against them” the DMK supremo said in a statement.

Following the retaliation from the opposition party, in the February 4 cabinet meeting, Tamil Nadu chief minister EPS gave instructions to the ministers of his party that they should restrict themselves from commenting on other issues which don’t align with their portfolios

But this is not first time the AIADMK minister made the headlines. Last year, he commented that the Congress is the main reason for violence in the country, and DMK is the responsible for every mishap in Tamil Nadu.

Also read: Amid row over Rajinikanth’s remark, Periyar statue vandalised in TN village

In view of these controversies, The Federal tries to take a peek into his past and how he got a ministerial position from being a poster boy for the party.

Born to a carpenter, Kurunthamadam Thavasilingam Rajenthran since childhood was an avid fan of Indian actor and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran, famously known as MGR, who was also the founder of the Dravidian party AIADMK.

Hence, Rajenthra’s union with the party, where he started off as a young boy given the job of pasting political posters, comes as no surprise. Carrying his enthusiasm and loyalty for the party, he went on to become an auto-announcer of the political meetings which gave the initial air to his interest in politics and delivering public speeches.

It is also said that Balakrishnan, who held a powerful post in the AIADMK, took Rajenthra under his wing after he became an MLA from Sivakasi.

From doing odd jobs such as painting walls to travelling on a rented bicycle, the 10^th class pass has done it all but little did he know that one day he will become the party’s secretary from Tiruthangal (1990) and gradually get tiny promotions to be named the first vice-president of the city after the town was named a municipality (1996).

Rajenthra, who worked at a match factory in Sivakasi popularly known as the house of fire crackers, shot to fame and wealth after making use of his powers to issue several clearances to cracker manufacturing units. However, he claims to give the credit of his popularity among his party members and outside to his change of name to Rajenthra Balaji, a suffix which he added after visiting Perumal temple in Tiruthangal famous for numerology.

Also read: Decoding Rajini’s political swing post his Periyar remark

It was in the 90s when he struggled to make ends meet but in 2011 when the then AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa’s look fell on him and he was got an MLA seat, there was no looking back.

The phrase ‘When it rains, it pours’ describes Rajenthra’s fate to the fullest as within two months of being elected as a district secretary, he was given a cabinet post which further escalated to him holding the portfolio of Department of information and special program implementation from 2011 to 2015.

His ascension became a topic among the cadres, as he was the only person until then, who was elected to the Assembly, was made district secretary and got a ministerial post. But his achievement again raised several questions.

Some say that his closeness with the Mannargudi Mafia Sasikala was the sole reason behind this as he is the only person who supports her return to the party.

During his tenure as the information minister he faced a lot of criticism for not announcing Tamil Nadu state film awards for the years 2009 to 2014. However, rubbing salt on the wounds, the 2013 centenary celebration of Indian cinema organised by the state government too did not go well on the film industry due to numerous omissions and unfair treatment given to Kamal Hasan and Rajinikanth.

Also read: Expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa joins BJP

While the state government spent ₹30 crores for the campaigning the Nootraandu Pesum Oraandu Saathanai (One year achievement that will be spoken for next 100 years) event, which aimed at boasting of achievements by the party in one year of power, his department alone has spent around ₹20 crores.

Though as a minister he does not have any major criminal cases against him, he has often been criticised for supporting the accused which in turn increased his chide from the party’s top brass, especially O. Panneerselvam whom Rajendran often supports out of gratitude.

Jayalalithaa’s death came as a blow to his almost perfect career as it was since then the series of his derogatory speeches took off and now backfiring his own party, the first being in 2016 when he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi the ‘Father of the party (AIADMK)’ and Amma (Jayalalithaa) is the ‘Mother of the party’.

Interestingly, during the 2016 elections, it was Rajenthra himself who coined the phrase that it would be a clash between ‘Gujarat’s Modi and Tamil Nadu’s Lady’. But within weeks of the AIADMK supremo’s death he started chanting praises of the Prime Minister, raising speculations to his change of attitude.

Also read: The dead history of Dalit publications in Tamil Nadu

According to party insiders, one of the reasons for this sudden change could be the asset misappropriation case filed against him in 2013.

Petitioner Mahendra, who filed a case in the Madras High Court alleging that Rajenthra in his nomination revealed assets worth ₹40 lakh whereas after coming into power he bought a land of 35 acre costing ₹74 lakh which has a market value of ₹3 crore now as of today.

After the case was put on hold in 2014 due to lack of evidence, it was only after four years that the bench ordered to investigate the case and directed the vigilant officers to submit proofs of his assets starting right from 1996 when he became the vice-president of Tiruthangal municipality. The court is yet to pronounce its final order.

As smoke in the party awaits its big blow, the fact as to when Rajenthra Balaji will come face to face with his other party functionaries remains unknown.