KANYAKUMARI: The National Democratic Alliance is in power in Tamil Nadu and it would form the next government after assembly elections, BJP state president L Murugan said on Monday.
Murugan was interacting with reporters in Kanyakumari after taking part in a meeting of the district level functionaries.
“The NDA will fill the vacancy,” he said when asked about the vacuum caused by the demise of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu.
To another question, he said, “NDA’s chief minister is ruling here (Tamil Nadu).” About announcing the CM candidate, he said the AIADMK had passed a resolution with Edappadi K Palaniswami as the CM candidate.
Murugan added that the NDA’s all India high command would announce the CM candidate of the alliance after discussing it with the alliance parties. He also said that there was no necessity for their party to use central investigating agencies to mount pressure on the ruling party and threaten anyone.
Responding to a statement by Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri that the BJP was trying to treat AIADMK as a second grade party, Murugan said the Congress was not sure if it had a place in the DMK alliance. He also said there was confusion within the DMK over the CM candidature, “whether it is Stalin or Kanimozhi (Karunanidhi) or Udhayanidhi (Stalin).”
The BJP state president attacked the DMK for treating women badly by citing a Coimbatore incident where a woman was beaten up and removed for questioning Stalin and a recent incident where the Alangulam MLA and former minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna fell at the feet of their party’s male functionaries. Citing power cuts and land grab during the DMK regime till 2011, he said that people would vote against such a party this year as well.
Expressing confidence over winning the by-poll in Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, he added that the party was ready to win even if the election was announced today. He said that a victory in Kanyakumari would be the party’s stepping stone for the victories in the assembly polls. The candidate for the by-poll would be announced by the party high command, Murugan added.
He opined that Rajinikanth would support the BJP as “he believes in spiritualism and nationalism and that their party is the one that offers both.”