BJP national president Amit Shah’s assertion recently that his party would lead the alliance in Tamil Nadu for the 2016 Assembly polls has irked the DMDK, whose leaders say the BJP is going back on a promise made during the alliance talks for the Lok Sabha polls.
Further, at informal discussions, senior party leaders have expressed dismay at the BJP completely ignoring the DMDK during Mr. Shah’s visit to Chennai. Unless its leader Vijayakant is accepted as the chief ministerial candidate, continuing in the National Democratic Alliance would be unviable, they feel.
A senior party MLA, who was part of the alliance talks in February-March, said when it was decided that the DMDK would be part of the NDA for the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was requested, as part of the deal, to immediately announce Mr. Vijayakant as the chief ministerial candidate for the 2016 State Assembly elections.
“While they accepted the proposal, they said making the announcement immediately would jeopardise the alliance as the PMK might protest. They said the announcement would be made eventually. Now they are singing a different tune,” the MLA said.
Also, there was no question of the DMDK giving up on its role as an alliance leader for the Assembly polls, since its presence was wider in the State than of the BJP.
During his visit to the State last week, Mr. Shah indicated that the BJP would want to lead the NDA in Tamil Nadu. The alliance will also announce a chief ministerial candidate before going to the polls, he assured.
The NDA in Tamil Nadu has witnessed rough weather with the MDMK leaving it early this month and the PMK launching constant criticism of the Centre’s policies on various issues. Even on Thursday, PMK founder S. Ramadoss criticised the BJP-led government at the Centre adopting the ‘Ordinance route’ to push key economic reforms as a ‘murder of democracy’.
