Days after claiming that the DMK cabinet was waiting for an Eknath Shinde to emerge within the party, Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai said on Thursday that the BJP did not have anything to do with the developments in Maharashtra politics and that Eknath Shinde had rebelled on his own.
“We have nothing to do with what happened in Maharashtra. I didn’t say that the BJP is trying to create an Eknath Shinde in the DMK. But if the same political situation persists in Tamil Nadu, an Eknath Shinde will emerge,” he said.
Mr. Annamalai said the BJP would want to come to power in Tamil Nadu by winning the elections, after earning people’s support and love. “Eknath Shinde is an example that wherever dynastic politics is being practised in Tamil Nadu, this sort of a situation [like the Shiv Sena rebellion] will happen,” he said.
Ilaiyaraaja’s nomination
Mr. Annamalai said the nomination of music composer Ilaiyaraaja to the Rajya Sabha had to be seen outside the prism of politics and identity. “Mr. Ilaiyaraaja doesn’t need any identity. He has come this far through hard work and merit. He is common to all the citizens. There is no need to box him within an identity and there is no need to mix politics in this,” he said.
He claimed that the BJP will definitely win 25 seats in Tamil Nadu in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Hitting out at the TNCC president K.S. Alagiri for mocking his statement on the BJP’s proposed padayatra, he said the Congress was in ICU in Tamil Nadu and without the DMK, the Congress would not even win a single seat in the State. “He wants Rahul Gandhi to contest in Kanniyakumari. Let him bring him. We will see,” he added.
