leaders of Tamil Nadu BJP allege that there is a pre-emptive move by the Opposition DMK and its would be allies to prevent the further growth of the BJP in Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, the DMK and its allies have chosen to target the BJP, which could mobilise just 2.86 per cent popular votes in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly election, which also saw most prominent leaders of the Hindutva party, including State chief Tamilissai Sounderarajan losing their security deposits.
There is a feeling among the secular parties in the State that the AIADMK would forge an alliance with the BJP which according to them would be a formidable front. Over the last one month, the DMK, the Congress and the lefts have been charging the BJP for creating the split and turmoil in the ruling AIADMK. The blitzkrieg launched by the DMK along with the CPI(M), the CPI, the Congress and certain caste outfits prove that they are scared by the prospect of the BJP occupying the space left by late Jayalalithaa, said KT Raghavan, Tamil Nadu secretary of the BJP.
Raghavan was responding to the frequent outburst by MK Stalin, the DMK’s working president, who has been ‘warning’ the Centre against its move to impose Hindi in non-Hindi speaking States like TN.
Though there are no recent official notifications from the Union Government in this regard, Stalin, who is also the leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu, has been issuing statements on a regular basis creating a sense of fear among the people of the State, said Raghavan.
“The DMK, is yet to recover from the shock of the three successive defeats in the 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections and the 2014 lok Sabha election. Stalin hopes that by blaming the BJP, his party could regain the lost ground in the State. He is not in a position to suffer one more defeat as that would put an end to his efforts to bring the DMK completely under his control,” said Raghavan.
He pointed out that the accusation by the DMK, the Congress, the lefts and some other parties which were obliterated in these elections find themselves in a no-man’s land with uncertain future.
“Their allegation that the BJP had a role in installing O Panneerselvam as Chief Minister immediately after the demise of J Jayalalithaa has been repudiated by VK Sasikala, the AIADMK general secretary,” said the BJP spokesman.
While addressing party workers who had come to greet her at Poes Garden on February 13, 2017, Sasikala had told them that she could have become the Chief Minister on the day Jayalalithaa passed away.
“Panneerselvam wanted me to become the Chief Minister. But I preferred to be with the body of Jayalalithaa and I only asked him to rush
to Raj Bhavan and get sworn
in as Chief Minister. I had
been warned by some trusted people that there was an
effort by the Opposition to sabotage the Government,” Sasikala had told the AIADMK cadre, the pictures of which were shown live in all Tamil news channels.
Since then the DMK, the Congress and their prospective alliance partners were spreading wrong information that the BJP was behind the swearing in of Panneerselvam as CM, pointed out Raghavan.
He said the diamond jubilee celebrations being organised by the DMK on June 3 in honour of party chief M Karunanidhi was a façade to cobble up a non-BJP front in the country.