With Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh and All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) founder N. Rangasamy clinching a deal on allotment of the lone Puducherry Lok Sabha seat at a meeting in Chennai on Thursday, decks seem to have been cleared for AINRC candidate R. Radhakrishnan to kick start his campaign with the support of partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Puducherry.
However, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which has also announced its candidate for the Puducherry seat, is claiming that no decision has been taken for allotting the seat to AINRC.
Though Mr. Rangasamy did not share the dais at the press meet held in Chennai, which was attended by Mr. Singh along with other NDA leaders of Tamil Nadu, both of them met in a room separately.
M. Visweswaran, president of the BJP’s Puducherry unit, who was also part of the meet, told The Hindu over phone that Mr. Singh had declared that the Puducherry seat had been allotted to the AINRC in the NDA.
‘No more crisis’When asked whether all outstanding issues had been sorted out, Mr. Visweswaran said there was no issue in the alliance.
There would not be any crisis hereafter.
On reports of the PMK refusing to withdraw its candidate, Mr. Visweswaran said the question did not arise when Mr. Singh himself announced that Puducherry seat was allotted to AINRC in the NDA.
V. Baalan, general secretary, AINRC, said that all issues had been sorted out. A joint campaign would begin soon with the support of all alliance partners.
However, R.K.R. Anandaraman, organiser of the PMK’s Puducherry unit, told The Hindu there was no change in the stand of the party contesting from Puducherry.
