BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Saturday officially announced that the party would fight the ensuing Assembly election in Tamil Nadu with the ruling AIADMK.
Kick-starting the party’s election campaign from Madurai, Mr. Nadda declared that the BJP had decided to go along with the AIADMK and other like-minded parties in the coming election. He said the AIADMK had regional aspirations, while also assimilating national ones.
“Both [its leaders] M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa had regional aspirations, while assimilating national ones,” he said. The BJP will see to it that there is nation-wide development, along with development for Tamil Nadu. “Past experiences show that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken care of Tamil Nadu’s development,” he said.
The Prime Minister has showed “dynamic leadership quality” in COVID-19 management, vaccination and security of the nation, he said.
‘Needs mainstreaming’
Stating that Tamil Nadu needed mainstreaming, he said it was possible only with the BJP. All issues faced by the State can be addressed by Mr. Modi.
Mr. Nadda listed out various benefits Tamil Nadu enjoyed under the Modi government. “With the right person in the right place, right decisions are being taken,” he said.
As against ₹94,540 crore given to Tamil Nadu by the UPA Government under the 13th Finance Commission, the Modi government gave ₹5.42 lakh crore for the development of the State under the 15th Finance Commission. The Centre has given funds for the development of the textile industry and the defence corridor, aimed at economic development.
According to him, Tamil Nadu got a good share of funds under schemes like Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan and PM’s Ujjwala scheme, meant to empower women and the common man. The needs of Tamil Nadu were taken care of through big projects like Metro rail, monorail, ₹20,000 crore investment in the Railways, 12 smart cities and AIIMS.
Besides spending ₹1,200 crore on the AIIMS in Madurai, the Centre would be incurring a recurring annual expenditure of ₹2,000 crore on it, he said. “A total of 100 medical students and 100 paramedical students will pass out every year from AIIMS,” he said.
The BJP leader said the DMK was against Tamil culture and was anti-national as it had rejected all national aspirations and did not support them.
Mr. Nadda said DMK leader M.K. Stalin, who had refused to sport kumkum in the past, was forced by the BJP to hold a ‘ vel’ in his hands. The BJP was committed to protecting Tamil culture, he said.
Party State president L. Murugan, party Tamil Nadu in-charge C.T. Ravi, its co in-charge Sudhakar Reddy and senior leaders were present.
