Exuding confidence that the ruling AIADMK will retain power in the Assembly elections for the next term too, Minister for Information and Publicity Kadambur C Raju has said the contest between the BJP and DMK will be for the second place only.
Minister of Information and Publicity Kadambur C Raju
Thiruchirapalli:
Referring to a statement made by VP Duraiswamy, ex-DMK MLA and the current state BJP vice president, the Minister said that the competition between the BJP and DMK will be opposition party status and not for power.
In a striking similarity to the 2011 poll outcome, the BJP, which’s now a key ally of the AIADMK, could have wished to achieve the opposition party status like DMDK, he added.
Keeping this in mind, Duriasamy could have said the BJP in the AIADMK-led combine could face the next Assembly elections and emerge as the main opposition, he told reporters near Kayathar in Thoothukudi district on Thursday.
Duraisamy was of the view since he quit the DMK recently and joined the BJP. Following Duraisamy’s move from the DMK, another DMK MLA Ku Ka Selvam voluntarily quit the party, the Minister recalled.
Alliance intact: Murugan
The alliance between the BJP and the AIADMK is intact and both the parties would jointly face the upcoming Assembly polls, said BJP state president L Murugan in Perambalur on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a discussion meeting with party workers on the celebration of the Prime Minister’s birthday on September 17, Murugan slammed MP Kanimozhi for politicising the linguistic issue with a CISF personnel.
Answering a query about the relationship between BJP and AIADMK, the BJP state chief said, the NDA alliance is intact and the alliance with AIADMK would continue for the Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that the Centre has withdrawn the e-pass facility for travel and said, “It is just meaningless and so the state should cancel the e-pass facility at the earliest.”