Chennai: In its first poll rally here, the ruling AIADMK bluntly told Sunday it ally BJP that it cannot make a dent in Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK also ruled out accommodating the saffron party in the government if it won the Assembly elections, due next year.
The BJP has to endorse Chief Minister K Palaniswami’s candidature for the CM’s post for the polls. It has to agree to AIADMK’s other terms – like non-participation in government. If the BJP does not agree to the conditions led down the AIADMK, then the latter will have to think otherwise.
The AIADMK pointed to the deaths of it top leader J Jayalalithaa and DMK’s M Karunanidhi who opposed her. Senior leader and AIADMK deputy coordinator KP Munusamy said that in the absence of such leaders, ‘many’ parties were now trying to make a political entry into Tamil Nadu and succeed.
Some national parties, ‘opportunists, betrayers and a crowd’, were blaming the Dravidian outfits, alleging they ruined Tamil Nadu by their 50-plus year rule of the state, he said. Munusamy wondered how accusations of inefficiency could be hurled against the AIADMK government. Also, the state overall had superior infrastructure and facilities, be it education or health care amenities, he said.
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All such forces eying political gains should realise that Tamil Nadu would not endorse them as Dravidian ideology is the bedrock of the state’s social and cultural milieu, Munusamy asserted.
Munusamy made the remarks in the presence of Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and other senior leaders.
In his fiery speech, Munusamy who is a senior leader and close to Panneerselvam, asserted that BJP cannot succeed independently in Tamil Nadu. He said the BJP and was very much dependent on AIADMK. He hinted that BJP should accept that AIADMK was the senior partner, endorse the candidature of Palaniswami or the saffron party may reconsider its electoral options for the 2021 polls.
“Be it a national party or state party.The government will be led by the AIADMK. There is no necessity for a coalition government. If any political party comes forward for an alliance arrangement with an idea of a coalition government, let them please think about it,” Munusamy asserted. The senior leader exhorted party cadres to work hard to ensure the party emerged victorious in the polls next year.
Besides the BJP, there are other constituents in the AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu, including the PMK.
The saffron party;s TN unit had all along maintained that the CM nominee of the NDA in Tamil Nadu would be decided and announced by the BJP’s national leadership.
To make matters worse, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was here Friday, toed the state unit’s stand. He declined to categorically say if his party continued its ties with the AIADMK or if it endorsed the candidature of Palaniswami.
Some social media posts claimed that either BJP wanted to break away from the AIADMK alliance and form a separate front with Rajinikanth’s proposed party or was merely ‘posturing’ to bargain for a cabinet berth if AIADMK retained power.
The Tamil Nadu BJP in general is opposed to Dravidian politics, which, it had often said, showed some tendencies of separatism, resulting in the state going off the national mainstream.
Top star Rajinikanth is set to launch a party next month. Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and Tamil nationalist and leader of Nam Tamizhar Katchi (We Tamils Party), Seeman, whose stand against both Dravidian and national parties is well known, appeared to be among Munusamy’s targets.