AIADMK will lead the grand alliance: BJP

Chennai: BJP State President K Annamalai said the NDA would be led by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu as it was the largest partner and the alliance of the 2019 and 2021 elections would continue for 2024, too.

Answering questions from the media at the party headquarters in Chennai on Monday, he said there was nothing wrong in AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami declaring that his party would form a grand alliance for the Lok Sabha elections.

To a question on Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) founder T T V Dinakaran’ statement that he would like to be part of the alliance to defeat the DMK in the elections, Annamalai said the final decisions on tie-ups would be taken by the BJP’s Parliamentary Board at the time of the polls.

Describing the Supreme Court verdict allowing 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions as ‘historic,’ he said that it would not affect the existing 69 per cent reservation in the State.

He expressed the hope that the Tamil Nadu government would implement the reservation for EWS candidates at least now as the court had given its nod.

To a question on the VCK distributing free copies of ‘Manusmrithi’ to the people, Annamalai said that the party would have gained more popularity if it had printed its ideals and principles and given them to the people.

The text of the ‘Manusmirithi’ printed by the VCK was only based on translations by others and cannot be considered as anything based on the original text.

Asked about the State government’s standoff with the Governor, he said that the Governor was right in taking the stand that he had taken.

He announced that the BJP would hold a protest in all the 1200 panchayat unions in the State on November 15 to express the party’s opposition to the recent hike in milk prices. The DMK government was continuing to burden the people by raising the electricity tariff, property taxes and so on, he said.

The State BJP would also give a rousing welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Tamil Nadu on November 11 to take part in an event at the Gandhigram Rural University.

Earlier Annamalai released a book in Tamil on Narendra Modi at the party headquarters.