The BJP would take steps to sew up the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu for the 2016 assembly elections, notwithstanding the Pattali Makkal Katchi announcing its chief ministerial candidate, State president Tamilisai Soundararajan has said.
Talking to reporters at Pamban, near here on Sunday, she said though the PMK had announced the chief ministerial candidate, the BJP would take steps to bring the party and other parties back into the NDA fold to provide an alternative to the Dravidian parties.
The BJP had succeeded in projecting an alternative to the Dravidian parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by uniting the opposition parties and would sew up the NDA for the assembly elections too, she said.
“Shedding the egos, all the allies should accept a chief ministerial candidate from the NDA and fight the elections to dislodge the ‘corrupt’ All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK),” she said, adding that the BJP would take the initiative to strengthen the NDA in the State.
Alleging that the AIADMK was facing a host of corruption charges, she said the ruling party was trying to silence the opposition in the Assembly by evicting or suspending the members when they raised the issues. “It is distressing to note that people’s problems could not be discussed in the Assembly,” she said.
Ms. Soundararajan said the Speaker should make seating arrangement for DMK leader M. Karunanidhi to attend the House and appealed to the Leader of Opposition and DMDK leader Vijayakant to attend the proceedings.
Replying to a question, she said the party was not upset by its performance in the Srirangam by-election. The 5,000-odd votes secured by the party candidate were equal to five lakh votes as it had fought against the money and muscle power.
“If the ruling party spent huge amount of money to retain the seat, the DMK had spent money to retain the deposit,” she said.
She was confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka would help resolve Tamils’ problem.
A solution to the dispute over fishing in the Palk Bay, could also be found, she said and asked MDMK leader Vaiko to stop criticising Mr. Modi for everything.
Shed ego to form alliance, Tamilisai tells parties
