Meanwhile, rival DMK reiterated hope that Vijayakanth would accept its invitation to join its alliance, so did the People's Welfare Front.
Chennai: The BJP’s desperate bid to resurrect the NDA, which it forged for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and projected as an alternative force in TN, hit a roadblock on Sunday with Union minister Prakash Javadekar returning to the national capital without getting a firm ‘yes’ from DMDK chief Vijayakanth and without meeting the sulking PMK.
Meanwhile, rival DMK reiterated hope that Vijayakanth would accept its invitation to join its alliance, so did the People’s Welfare Front. Adding anxiety in the BJP camp, DMDK released a picture of Captain’s session with Javadekar with a caption saying it was a mere “courtesy meeting”.
Mr Javadekar, however, said his 24-hour visit to Chennai, which he described as his mission “to firm up the alliance for the ensuing polls retaining the allies who were with the NDA in 2014,” was fruitful.
He said his discussions with NDA partners, especially “Captain" (Vijayakanth) at his residence here, was "fruitful.” He would brief Party president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the outcome of the discussions he had on alliance before announcing the final decision.
Asked whether there was any firm commitment from the DMDK that it would stay with the NDA, he replied, "We had fruitful discussion. This is my second meeting with the Captain. I am happy with both meetings. We will tell everything next week."
Elaborating he said the discussions with all allies including R. Sarath Kumar of AISMK, revolved on working out a strategy to fight the Assembly polls together. “The TN people deserve a good administration which it had not got for the last 50 years.
The BJP will provide better governance," he told reporters waiting at a hotel before leaving for the airport in the evening. He assured he would come again after the budget (on Wednesday), and that “all alliance partners would be presented before the media at a suitable time." The details in this regard would be worked out in a week's time.
He described the hour-long meeting with Vijayakanth as a “courtesy call”. During the meeting, BJP state unit president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan was present.
According to BJP sources, Vijayakanth had demanded to be accepted as the NDA’s CM candidate and wanted the PMK to be kept out of the alliance. “He had even offered to rope in TMC’s G.K. Vasan into the NDA if the PMK was kept out,” a BJP senior who did not want to be quoted said. “We may accept him as our CM candidate and also the seats (over 75) that he wants but there are certain other issues that need to be sorted out," he added.
PMK's CM candidate Dr Anbumani Ramadoss was said to be at Dharmapuri to oversee his party's meeting and so was not available in the town for parleys with Javadekar.
In Hosur, BJP national executive member L. Ganesan claimed that both the DMDK and the PMK would remain in the NDA. “The leaders of both the parties showed interest in meeting Javadekar thereby indicating they want to continue in the NDA”, he said.
