Despite successfully putting together a coalition for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has been left isolated now with no major party willing to join hands with it for the Assembly elections.
And, Wednesday served a double-whammy to the national party. Not only did DMDK, a party it had been desperately trying to rope in, enter into an alliance with the People’s Welfare Front (PWF), the All India Samuathuva Makkal Katchi led by actor Sarath Kumar also jumped ship.
Only weeks ago, Mr. Sarath had met Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar during his visit to Chennai and spoke of fighting the Assembly elections as an NDA partner. But the situation was different then as the DMDK was expected to take a favourable stand.
Sources in the party said the BJP’s reluctance to declare DMDK president Vijayakant as the chief ministerial candidate could have been the primary reason for the alliance not working out. Indicating this, BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan said the party wanted all allies to be on equal footing.
On the possibilities of a tie-up with the PMK, she said it was up to that party to decide if it wanted the BJP’s support. The PMK too has a chief ministerial candidate in Anbumani Ramadoss.
The BJP has contested all elections alone here since 2004.
