BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Saturday officially announced that the party would fight the upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu with the ruling AIADMK.
Kick-starting the party’s election campaign from Madurai, Mr. Nadda declared that the BJP has decided to go along with AIADMK and other like-minded parties in the coming elections. He said the AIADMK had regional aspirations along with assimilation for national aspirations.
The AIADMK defeated the DMK in the 2011 assembly polls when former chief minister J Jayalalithaa led the party to a resounding victory. It won again in 2016 before the DMK bounced back with a strong performance in last year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan on Sunday hinted at realignment of political alliances in Tamil Nadu ahead of the assembly election next year, while not ruling out a possible tie-up with actor Rajinikanth, who is set to launch his party soon.
Nadda is on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu to take stock of the party’s affairs and poll preparedness months before assembly elections are due in the southern state, officials said on Friday. He will also visit Puducherry for a day during his trip.
“Tamil Nadu needs (national) mainstreaming and it is possible only with the BJP,” he said stating that the issues being faced by the state could be tackled with the support of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
“Take care of Kamalam (lotus, the BJP symbol) and Kamalam is going to take care of development of Tamil Nadu,” he added.
Earlier, when the BJP national chief arrived at the venue of the public meeting, he was greeted with slogans of ‘Vetri Vel, Veera Vel.”
On Sunday, the BJP chief would visit Puducherry. Former public works minister and ex-Congress leader from the union territory, A Namasivayam joined the Saffron party days ago in Delhi.
