The prospects of a BJP-AIADMK poll alliance took yet another setback on Thursday as Thambi Durai, the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha who is also a senior AIADMK leader lambasted the Hindutva party for its efforts to saffronise Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to reporters at Karur on Thursday , Durai came down on the BJP using the harshest of words. “Tamil Nadu is the land of Ramasamy Naicker, C N Annadurai, M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa. This is the Dravidian Land where there is no place for caste, religion and communalism. The BJP is trying to disrupt the Dravidian heritage and culture. We will never allow the BJP to set its foot in Tamil Nadu,” said Durai.
The AIADMK leader had lambasted the BJP last Friday for its alleged connivance with the DMK in ordering CBI raids on the residences of Tamil Nadu health minister Vijaya Bhaskar and the State Police Chief T K Rajendran in connection with the Gutkha scam. Durai had alleged that the Narendra Modi Government had ordered the CBI raids on September 5 to help the DMK because Alagiri, the estranged brother of DEMK chief M K Stalin was holding a rally at Chennai on the same day.
"The CBI raids were held on that day itself only to divert the attention of the general public from the rally staged by Alagiri,” Durai had charged and asked the BJP to prove its fidelity in its ties with the AIADMK.
Thursday’s outburst by Durai assumes significance as the AIADMK launched its campaign for the Thirupparankundram by-poll on the same day. Seven ministers in the Edappadi Palaniswamy overnment undertook a bicycle rally in the constituency with the declaration that no other parties would get back their security deposit in the by-poll.
The election Commission of India is yet to announce the poll schedule and the parties have not named the candidates.
Durai’s tirades over the last few months against the BJP have put the party’s leaders in a dilemma. “We are under instruction from not to react to the statements made by the AIADMK and the DMK howsoever provocative they may be,” said a senior BJP leader in Tamil Nadu.