AIADMK holds talks with Shah for BJP’s seat share
Talks between ruling party’s senior leaders and DMDK also being held
CHENNAI: AIADMK Convenors Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam held talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a private hotel in Chennai on Sunday night to finalise the seat-sharing between the two alliance partners ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled on April 6.
Sources said that with BJP demanding 30 seats, the ruling party was in no mood to concede more than 22 seats for the national party. “The seat-sharing details will be finalised in the meeting,” said the AIADMK leader on condition of anonymity. Along with Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, AIADMK MP and Panneerselvam’s son, OP Raveendranath Kumar was also present in the meeting. Union Home Minister for State G Kishan Reddy, BJP State President L Murugan and former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan represented BJP along with Shah.
Earlier in the day, L Murugan met Amit Shah and discussed the seat-sharing process with him. According to sources in BJP, the meeting went for more than 90 minutes when the leaders discussed the seats that BJP would seek to contest from in the polls.
During his campaign, Shah spoke high of Tamil and its culture, calling it ‘sweet’, on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed regret about not being able to learn the old southern language. “First of all I want to say sorry that I am unable to talk in one of the oldest languages in the country,” Shah said at the Villupuram public meeting. Noting that the question seemed simple but was difficult, he said, “I pondered this over and told myself that one of my shortcomings was that I could not make much effort to learn Tamil, the oldest language in the world; I could not make myself learn Tamil!”
Meanwhile, DMDK functionaries led by its party Vice President B Parthasarathy met Electricity Minister P Thangamani at his residence and held seat-sharing talks for the party. Minister for Local Administration SP Velumani was also present there.
Sources in DMDK indicated that the party was demanding seats on par with PMK, which will contest from 23 seats. However, AIADMK was refusing to allot the same, they added. The talks between the two parties are expected to continue for a day or two before the final numbers would be agreed upon. On Saturday, ministers Thangamani, Velumani and AIADMK senior leader KP Munusamy met DMDK founder Vijayakant at his residence. Meanwhile, DMDK Treasurer Premalatha Vijayakant, reiterated at a meeting in Kallakurichi on Saturday that DMDK can still contest alone in the election and get 10 per cent votes triggering a fresh debate among cadre.
Meanwhile, sources said the BJP candidate for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha by-poll will most likely be Pon Radhakrishnan.
First of all I want to say sorry that I am unable to talk in one of the oldest and sweetest languages in the country —Amit Shah, Union Home Minister during Karaikal campaign
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday launched a broadside against the Congress and the DMK over dynastic politics, saying the respective parties were only worried about their first families and pitched his BJP-led NDA as pro-development which would ensure growth.
While Congress president Sonia Gandhi was ‘worried’ about making her son Rahul Prime Minister, DMK chief MK Stalin was worried about making his son Udhayanidhi the state Chief Minister, he said.
Addressing a Vijay Sankalp election rally here ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls in the state, Shah asked people to choose between the “sons and daughters of kings and emperors” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda.
The DMK-Congress alliance “believes in dynastic politics,” he charged. “On one side there is the NDA that protects India. Today none can dare do anything in India’s borders. Pakistan dared to do things in Uri, Pulwama. Narendra Modi taught it a lesson by entering its house (and carry out attacks) by directing the military,” he said in reference to the Balakot air strikes. “On the other side, you have the DMK and Congress parties who are only worried about their families, (which are) steeped in corruption and do the politics of divide and rule.
The voters have to choose ‘Lotus’ and ‘Two Leaves,’ the respective symbols of the BJP and the AIADMK, he said.
The AIADMK-BJP coalition will work on the philosophy of the late chief ministers MG Ramachandran (AIADMK founder) and J Jayalalithaa, besides that of his party, Shah said. Hailing Ramachandran as the true “makkal thilagam,” (people’s leader) Shah said he was reminded of the stalwart when he saw Modi working for the Dalits, backward and oppressed today, recalling the Tamil Nadu veteran’s service for these sections.
‘Narayanasamy gave cut money to Gandhi family’
Earlier, lambasting the erstwhile Puducherrry Congress government in Karaikkal, Shah alleged V Narayansamy, who headed it, gave “cut money” to the “Gandhi family” from Rs 15,000 crore Central funds.