TN BJP chief Nainar dials EPS as power share talk hits coalition
The outreach came a day after Palaniswami, while campaigning in Tiruthuraipoondi, declared that the AIADMK would secure a majority on its own and asserted, "We are not fools to share power."
TN BJP president Nainar Nagenthran
CHENNAI: With the intense speculations over sharing power threatening to affect the cohesion within the coalition while also offering fodder to the political rivals, State BJP president Nainar Nagenthran dialed alliance leader AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami to defuse tensions before they get out of hand.
The outreach came a day after Palaniswami, while campaigning in Tiruthuraipoondi, declared that the AIADMK would secure a majority on its own and asserted, "We are not fools to share power." Nainar, however, maintained that the AIADMK general secretary's remarks were misinterpreted and did not signify any rift within the NDA in Tamil Nadu.
"There is no ulterior motive in what EPS said. His response was aimed at countering the DMK's narrative that the AIADMK would be destroyed by the BJP and that Tamil Nadu would be mortgaged to the Centre. I even spoke to him over the phone this morning. There is no confusion whatsoever," Nainar told the media in Tiruvarur on Sunday.
Palaniswami’s increasingly sharper comments rejecting the coalition government idea, floated by BJP strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and reiterated by his bete noire K Annamalai, sparked a flurry of political reactions, with many interpreting it as a rebuke to the BJP's growing ambitions in the State.
Dismissing such speculations, Nainar said, "On the matter of forming a coalition government, Union Minister Amit Shah, EPS, and other alliance leaders will take a joint decision at the appropriate time. The NDA in Tamil Nadu is intact and moving forward without discord."
But that the idea has taken root within the Saffron party cadre was on display when an excited BJP functionary in Ariyalur referred to Nainar as the "future Deputy Chief Minister". But he swiftly corrected her, cautioning against such premature claims on stage.
Taking a swipe at the ruling DMK, he accused the government of failing on its poll promises, particularly in education. "The number of Adi Dravidar students has dropped from 97,000 during AIADMK's rule to 65,000 now. Teachers are being neglected, and the education system is deteriorating," he said.
