‘Can’t match Jayalalithaa, so supporting BJP’

The Minister made the statement, after a group tore the flex banners and a hurled petrol bomb at an AIADMK functionary to oppose the party’s decision to support the NDA’s Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind on Friday night. When he went to Begumpur in Dindigul where the above incidents happened for the Iftaar party, he was met with a lukewarm response. 

Muslim cadre abstained from the ceremony in which the Minister attended with heavy police protection. Hardly 10 persons were present and because of it local traders were roped in to participate in the Iftaar. 

After Begumpur, the Minister went to Poochinayakanpatti to participate in another Iftaar party. In the meeting recalling the attack on Muslim AIADMK (A) functionary, he explained why the party decided to support the BJP in the Presidential poll. 

He said, “Jayalalithaa by contesting alone could get 37 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 more in the Rajya Sabha. Due to the massive win engineered by her, AIADMK became the third largest party in the country. But, after her death, the present lot of leaders can’t match her persona and the vision. Hence, we are forced to support the BJP.”