BJP team hands over seat allotment letters to allies

PMK refuses to budge an inch on Puducherry

Office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is facing an uphill task of sorting out differences among the partners of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Puducherry following a dispute raised by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) over the allotment of the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat to the All-India N.R. Congress (AINRC), on Tuesday visited the offices of alliance partners to hand over letter of seat allotment.

The office-bearers, led by the party’s local unit president S. Visweswaran, also visited the office of the PMK, which has announced R.K.R. Anantharaman for the Puducherry seat.

They handed over a letter that stated that Puducherry had been allotted to the AINRC. It also contained information about the constituent details of the NDA in the Union Territory.

Later, Mr. Visweswaran told The Hindu that the initiative was intended to clear confusion over seat allotment. The letter was given to all alliance partners including the AINRC, the Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK), the PMK, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and others with the consent of the BJP high command.

Stating that the issue couldn’t be allowed to continue, he hoped that the PMK would accept the official announcement made by BJP president Rajnath Singh on allotment of the Puducherry seat.

All parties had equal responsibility to work for the success of NDA candidate R. Radhakrishnan.

Refusal

However, Mr. Anantharaman has refused to accept the BJP stand on candidate issue.

He told reporters here that the Puducherry unit of BJP had no right to decide on the seat allotment. The PMK would not accept the announcement made by Mr. Visweswaran when the high command representative of the BJP Muralidhara Rao had told recently that the decision on Puducherry seat was not yet taken.

Asked about the decision of Chief Minister N. Rangasamy to meet Anbumani Ramadoss to seek the support of the PMK for the AINRC, Mr. Anantharaman said the Chief Minister made him (Anbumani) wait for long when the latter came to Puducherry to meet him recently.

Whatever might be the outcome, he would not withdraw from the race.

DMK meetings

Meanwhile, the DMK, which has fielded AMH Nazeem in Puducherry, has completed party workers’ meetings in all 30 Assembly segments in the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The party has planned to launch its election campaign shortly.