BJP can never ‘enter’ Tamil Nadu: Anwhar Raajhaa

Ramanathapuram

AIADMK MP and senior party leader A. Anwhar Raajhaa has said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can never ‘enter’ Tamil Nadu even if the party wins the Assembly elections in Karnataka.

“Even if the BJP wins the May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka, it will not be the gateway for the party to Tamil Nadu,” he said when asked about BJP President Amit Shah’s remarks that the Karnataka Assembly poll would not only help the party to get one more State but would open the gateway to the south.

Tamil Nadu was entirely different from other States and the BJP would never gain foothold in the State. “The BJP has won other States as those States had no ‘Periyar’ (rationalist leader Periyar E.V. Ramasamy) and ‘Anna’ (former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai),” he said.

Asserting that there was no question of AIADMK reviving its ties with the BJP for the coming Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Raajhaa said the party was very clear on the alliance issue and firm on toeing the line of the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa of fighting the elections independently.

“The AIADMK will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections independently,” he said, adding if at all it wanted to forge an alliance, it would be only with secular parties, he said.

When the party organ carried a report stating that the AIADMK and the BJP would function as double-barrelled gun, the party high command promptly removed the author of the article, sending the message loud and clear that the AIADMK would have no truck with the BJP, he said.

Answering a question, Mr. Raajhaa said the recent High Court order rejecting a plea to disqualify Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and 10 other MLAs was a shot in the arm of the ruling AIADMK and Edappadi K. Palaniswami would complete the full term.

He replied in the negative when asked whether the AIADMK would take any initiative to form a front at the national level as an alternative to the BJP.