Veerappan's daughter Vidya Rani joins BJP

The daughter of slain forest brigand Veerappan joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu, news agency ANI reported on Saturday. Vidya Rani was formally inducted into the saffron party by BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan at an event in Krishnagiri.

"I want to work for the poor and underprivileged irrespective of their caste and religion. PM Modi's schemes are for the people and I want to take them to the people," ANI quoted Rani as saying.

Besides her, the event saw at least 1,000 people from other political parties join the BJP.

Veerappan evaded authorities from three southern states for more than two decades, poached over 200 elephants, smuggled ivory worth hundreds of crore of rupees and killed more than 180 people, mostly police and forest officials. He was killed on October 24, 2004 by a special task force.

(Inputs from indianexpress.com)