CHENNAI: Popular actress turned politician Gautami Tadimalla from Chennai has resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that the party leaders were helping a man who she claimed "betrayed and cheated" her. "It is shattering to realise that there is a complete lack of support and moreover, that several senior members of the BJP have been enabling Alagappan to dodge justice and absconding since the last 40 days even after FIRs have been filed," alleged Gautami.

"Today I stand at an unimaginable crisis point in my life and find that not only do I not have any support from the party and leaders, but it has also come to my knowledge that several amongst them have been actively helping and supporting the very person who has betrayed my trust and cheated me of my life savings," she wrote in the letter posted on X - formerly known as Twitter.

Ending her 25 years of association with the BJP, Ms Tadimalla said that some party leaders were "actively helping and supporting" C Alagappan- who allegedly "duped her off her property, money and documents."

She tagged BJP President J P Nadda and the Tamil Nadu party unit chief K Annamalai among others in the post and said she was writing the resignation "in great pain and sorrow, but with very firm resolve."

"Mr Alagappan had approached me around 20 years ago seeing my vulnerability and isolation, as I was not only an orphan who had just lost both my parents, but also a single mother with an infant child. He insinuated himself and his family into my life under the guise of a caring elderly person. It was in this situation around 20 years ago that I entrusted him with the sale and documents of several of my lands, and it was just recently that I discovered he had defrauded me of the same; all while pretending to welcome me and my daughter as a part of his family," she said. Ms Tadimalla said she is fighting for justice as a "lone woman and a single parent."