AIADMK won’t allow BJP to ride piggyback: Thambi Durai

Says there is no scope for the BJP to establish itself in the State

Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai

Continuing to take a hardline against the BJP, AIADMK propaganda secretary and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai on Thursday declared that his party would not allow the BJP to piggyback on its shoulders to establish itself in Tamil Nadu.

His statement comes against the backdrop of reports that the BJP was seeking to open seat-sharing talks with the ruling AIADMK for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Interacting with journalists in Coimbatore, Mr. Thambi Durai referred to

Tuglak Editor S. Gurumurthy’s reported statement that the AIADMK must align with the BJP to facilitate the latter gaining ground in Tamil Nadu and asked: “What sin has the AIADMK committed to carry the BJP on its shoulders? There is no scope for the BJP to establish itself in the State.”

The AIADMK will would strive to ensure for ensuring its growth, but will not carry any other party on its shoulders, he said.

Own ideologies

“The AIADMK agrees with the BJP on certain issues but at the same time, it is not endorsing or accepting whatever is proposed by the BJP,” he said, adding that his party had its own set of ideologies.

Mr. Thambi Durai garlanded statues of late Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa to mark the 102nd birth anniversary of MGR in Coimbatore.

Terming the Kodanad estate-related developments as a well-orchestrated drama, he said there was not even an iota of truth in it. The opposition parties were drawing up a game plan to defame and destabilise the AIADMK, he alleged.

Referring to DMK president M.K. Stalin’s decision to take part in the rally proposed by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee in Kolkata on January 19, Mr. Thambi Durai pointed out that none of those parties were backing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a Prime Ministerial candidate.

Then why should Mr. Stalin take part in the rally, he asked.

He alleged that the ultimate objective of Mr. Stalin and the DMK was to wait for elections to get over and depending on the outcome to try and strike a post-poll pact with the party/alliance that comes to power at the Centre.