BJP challenges Congress on civic polls

Chennai: Mounting a scathing attack on the Congress while accusing it of shining in borrowed plumes, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan dared the Congress to contest the local bodies election alone and prove its strength.

Next to the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK, her party had fared well in the poll and despite contesting alone the BJP had improved its vote share securing about five lakh votes more that it had obtained in the 2011 Assembly election.

“The party that rode piggyback in the just concluded Assembly election should know that it could win only eight Assembly seats because it joined hands with the DMK. Although it contested from 41 seats, the Congress could not even secure third place, which the BJP occupied,” she said.  

Lashing out at TNCC chief E.V.K.S. Elangovan for his remark that the BJP could not even secure poll deposit, she said he had no moral right to criticise PM Modi or the performance of the BJP in the just concluded Assembly election.

“Everyone knows that the BJP had ruined the victory prospects of the AIADMK and the DMK in 25 constituencies each respectively and that of Congress in another 15 seats. Even the chief ministerial candidate Vijayakanth (DMDK founder) and his party candidates and those of the PWA lost deposits and fared poorly than the BJP.

“The DMK district secretaries have attributed the party’s defeat in several constituencies due to alliance with the Congress. What’s Elangovan’s reply to this? When he has no time to resolve the infighting in the Congress, what moral right has he to comment about the BJP,” she asked.