‘State BJP will have to decide on contesting by-election’

"AIADMK must explain why Vetrivel resigned."

Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon. Radhakrishnan launches a cleaning drive in Coimbatore.-Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders heading the Tamil Nadu unit will take a call on contesting the Dr. Radhakrishnan (R.K.) Nagar Assembly seat, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon. Radhakrishnan said here on Monday.

The AIADMK Member of Legislative Assembly from the constituency, P. Vetrivel, resigned on Sunday ahead of the AIADMK Legislative Party meeting.

Mr. Radhakrishnan, who was here to launch a cleaning drive, told presspersons that in the first place the AIADMK and Mr. Vetrivel should explain why he resigned.

The BJP would contest the 2016 Assembly election along with its allies as part of the National Democratic Alliance front, which was growing stronger by the day. It did not matter for the BJP if the constituent parties proposed their leaders at this stage for the chief ministership as in the run-up to the election, things would change when negotiations begin, he said and referred to the Pattali Makkal Katchi announcing the name of seven candidates for the 2014 Parliamentary election and then making changes.

To another question, he said the BJP did not support the AIADMK in the State, but felt that given the prevailing political circumstances and the remaining one-year mandate for the party, it would be good if AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa were to return as Chief Minister.

Mr. Radhakrishnan refused to comment on Tamil Nadu political parties urging the Karnataka government to appeal against the Karnataka High Court verdict in the disproportionate assets case against Ms. Jayalalithaa, saying he did not want to get into the politics of the issue.

Land Bill

On the Land Acquisition Bill, he said the Opposition was opposing the amendments for the sake of opposing them. The BJP government was trying to undo the damages done by the previous Congress government and those changes the BJP had proposed were asked by the Ministers of the Congress-ruled State Governments. In the past one year, the Narendra Modi-led Government had done lot of good work. In the coming months, people would start seeing a qualitative change in their lives. Foreign governments had already changed their perception of India.