The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai recently released two audio tapes as part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Files 3.

Annamalai alleged that the tapes show how senior DMK MP’s T R Baalu and A Raja had spoken to Jaffar Sait, who then headed the Intelligence Wing of the state police to influence the probe into the 2G scam.

In posts on X (formerly Twitter), Annamalai wrote that the tapes showed how the DMK and Congress decided the timing of raids, manipulated news and how witnesses were prepared and threatened.

The DMK is however unlikely to take action against them, compared to say what happened with former finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR), as its leaders like Raja and Kanimozhi had been acquitted in 2017.

Baalu is the party’s go-to-man in Delhi and is the father of state Industries Minister T R B Rajaa. Raja is the party’s scheduled caste face, known for his speeches steeped in Dravidian ideology, that work well with the party’s supporters.

PTR’s portfolio was changed from finance to information technology, days after the release of the audio tape, in which he allegedly told a journalist that Udhayanidhi Stalin and Sabareesan — the son and son-in-law of Chief Minister M K Stalin — had made Rs 30,000 crore in a year.

The release of these tapes as part of the third installment of DMK Files also comes at a crucial time as the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) probe into illegal river sand mining in the state has taken a backseat, after the arrest of one of its officers by the state’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption for taking a bribe of Rs 20 lakh.

Before the arrest, it was widely speculated that the ED would summon Water Resources Minister and DMK general secretary Duraimurugan in connection with the probe into sand mining, but that has not happened.

It also comes before the Madras High Court’s hearings scheduled in February on a bunch of suo moto revisions against the acquittal and discharge of ministers like K Ponmudy, Thangam Thennarasu and K K S S R Ramachandran.

For the BJP, which has been trying to come up as an alternative to the Dravidian parties by stating that it would provide ‘clean’ governance, these audio tapes would help it to keep the pot boiling till the 2024 elections, by pushing the narrative that the DMK is a corrupt party and should be voted out of power.

The BJP itself seems to have decided to adopt such a strategy as Annamalai has stated that more such tapes would be released in the following days.

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