Though the DMK leadership is groping in the dark to find out the reason behind its failure in the recent Assembly election, the Tamil Nadu BJP has come out with an answer for the defeat of the Dravidian major in the hustings. “It is the DMK’s alliance with the Congress that resulted in the party getting defeated in the 2016 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu,” said Tamilissai Sounderarajan, Tamil Nadu BJP chief.
Speaking to reporters at Chennai, Sounderarajan, a medical doctor-turned-politician pointed out that while the DMK which contested in 180 seats could win 89 of the constituencies, the Congress in spite of contesting in 41 seats finished with just five seats. “Had the DMK aligned with other parties except the Congress, the result would have been entirely different. The Congress has become an Albatross tied around the DMK’s neck,” she said.
The Congress party has become unpopular all over the country and hence people in Tamil Nadu too kept the party off the corridors of power. “The situation was ripe for a DMK victory since the people wanted a change in the Government. The AIADMK scraped through narrowly because of the DMK’s association with the Congress,” said Sounderarajan.
She was reacting to the allegation made by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president EVKS Elangovan that there was a tacit understanding between the AIADMK and the BJP. While speaking at Coimbatore, Elangovan had decared that the Congress would hold protests all over Tamil Nadu in the coming days to “expose the secret understanding” between the Hindutwa party and the BJP.
A furious Sounderarajan asked Elangovan to set his house in order before peeping into the affairs of other parties. “He himself is facing innumerable problems from all sections in the Congress. The leaders do not see eye to eye and blame each otjer for the defeat in the elections. It is to divert the attention of the people from such issues he is blaming the BJP,” said Sunderarajan, daughter of Kumari Ananthan, Congress strongman from Kanyakumari,
Referring to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s demand to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rescind the 1974 and 1976 agreements between India and Sri lanka with which the islet Katchatheevu was acceded to the island nation, the BJPO chief said it was not a practical or pragmatic demand. “We have to understand the ground reality. An accord signed between two sovereign nations has to be respected. But Sri lankan Government should behave in a humane manner and respect the sentiments of the fishermen from Tamil Nadu,” said Sounderarajan.