The high-profile wedding of RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy’s daughter on Sunday was expected to facilitate an informal meeting among the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance and bring down the simmering heat over the last few months. But that seems to have not materialised.
Heavyweights of the BJP, including L.K. Advani, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and several other Ministers such as Ravi Shankar Prasad and Venkaiah Naidu flew down to Chennai for the event. While Mr. Advani and Mr. Singh attended the wedding reception on Saturday and flew back to Delhi, the spotlight on Sunday was clearly on BJP national president Amit Shah.
Despite being in the same venue, sources said DMDK leader Vijayakant and Mr. Shah failed to meet. Though PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss did shake hands with the BJP leader, he immediately termed the meeting “completely informal.”
When asked if the PMK would support the BJP candidate in the Srirangam by-poll, Mr. Ramadoss said such decisions would be taken only by the party’s general council.
Meanwhile, sources in the BJP said Mr. Shah had given the clearance for the party to contest the by-poll scheduled for February 13.
“He told the State leadership that if any of the allies insisted on contesting, there shouldn’t be an issue in supporting such a candidate. If no other ally wanted to fight the by-poll, the BJP should do it,” a senior leader said.
