Will contest in cooker symbol only, insists Dhinakaran
CHENNAI: Minutes after meeting the BJP delegation for seat-sharing talks, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) general secretary TTV Dhinakaran on Wednesday said there is no threat to their cooker symbol and the party will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in their cooker symbol.
Exuding confidence that his party would get the cooker symbol for the coming Lok Sabha polls too, the former MP said, “We (AMMK) have applied for cooker symbol at the Election Commission of India. There is no coercion or threat regarding the cooker symbol. We hope that we will get the cooker symbol. We will never contest in any other symbol, especially lotus.”
Welcoming the implementation of CAA, Dhinakaran said it is not an Act to deprive people of citizenship, but it is to provide citizenship to those who came as refugees. “Some political parties are misleading the people over the implementation of CAA despite knowing the fact. During the election campaign, we (NDA) will break the false propaganda, set by the DMK and others by conducting door-to-door campaigns about the CAA and why this Act was brought, especially to the Muslim people throughout Tamil Nadu,” he noted.
Accusing the ruling DMK, the AMMK general secretary said that the people of Tamil Nadu are deceived by the DMK leaders and the NDA has formed to defeat the evil forces like DMK and save Tamil Nadu.
Justifying his decision to join the BJP-led alliance, Dhinakaran said the Centre has not mounted any pressure on the hydrocarbon project now and there is no environmental threat to our farmers, especially to those from the Delta region and the NDA alliance is formed in the hope of bringing more welfare schemes to the people of Tamil Nadu by making Narendra Modi Prime Minister for the third term.
Deal with PMK soon: BJP leaders
Meanwhile, BJP leaders said both former chief minister O Panneerselvam and Dhinakaran had submitted their wish list of Lok Sabha constituencies and the seat allocation would be done once the party confirmed the alliance with the PMK.
Later in the day, the BJP delegation led by Union Ministers VK Singh, G Kishan Reddy, L Murugan and Arvind Menon had multiple rounds of talks with PMK founder S Ramadoss and party president Anbumani Ramadoss. The BJP leaders hinted that the alliance with the PMK is expected to be sealed anytime soon.