The All India N.R. Congress, the principal Opposition party in the U.T., will not leave the Lok Sabha seat for the Bharatiya Janata Party as it is keen to field its own candidate.
According to a senior party functionary, the BJP leadership had approached the AINRC with a request to vacate the seat for the saffron party. A Union Minister recently met a confidant of AINRC chief and former Chief Minister N. Rangasamy in this regard. However, the party had outright rejected the proposal keeping in view its long-term political interest in the Union Territory.
“We are a regional party formed with the key objective not to take orders from Delhi when it comes to matters pertaining to the U.T. We are not willing to give away our rights,” said a leader.
Cautious approach
However, the party was in favour of forming alliance with like-minded parties, including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The AINRC had extended support to AIADMK candidate in the Nellithope by-election.
A section in the party had warned the leadership of having any open tie-up with BJP as they believe it could distance minorities away from the party.
With parliamentary elections fast approaching, the party had decided to reconstitute its governing council within a few days and get into campaign mode by early next month.
There were reports of party trying a new face, probably a young candidate, instead of fielding MP R. Radhakrishnan. He had won the 2014 elections defeating Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy by a margin of 60,854 votes.
The name of a doctor, who belonged to the family who runs a medical college in Puducherry, had been doing the rounds for sometime.
A party strategist said they had planned the campaign strategy in a way to aggressively go against the ruling Congress in the Union Territory rather than focusing on national issues. “We will not be focusing on any national issues. The campaign will be tailored to highlight the failures of the Congress government,” he added.