“Our alliance is stable, and intact,” said BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan here on Friday. She was here to attend a religious function.
She told The Hindu that political parties that are part of BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the State have realised that they should stay together to create a revolution in the 2016 Assembly election.
Ms. Soundararajan said that those who were part of the NDA in the State have not given any indication of leaving the alliance. The two major Dravidian parties that have been in power for decades have created space for a third front. The NDA was in a strong position as the third front. On statements by leaders of their alliance in the recent days, she said that the BJP welcomes healthy comments from its allies. “Any party is free to raise views. But, we make an appeal to the allies to refrain from making statements that went beyond the levels of comments or criticisms by the opposition,” she added. She said that the influence of the party in the State has been very good. She said that around 5,000 people used to join the party here. After the launch of the mass enrolment drive, the number of people joining the party in the State has gone up to 25,000 a day. Responding to claims by political parties on the influence of Hindi and Sanskrit on Tamil, Ms. Soundararajan said the online essay competition on Thiruvalluvar in 22 languages announced by Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani, was proof that Tamil has a strong influence on other languages. She denied that people were adversely affected by Direct Benefits Transfer for LPG.
Extending her support to industrialists in Coimbatore and Tirupur who are badly hit by the power tariff hike and power cuts, she said that because of such hardships they were unable to compete with manufacturers in Gujarat.
Ms. Soundararajan asked the government to roll back the power tariff hike, and fix price of sugarcane at Rs. 4,000 a tonne.
