Chennai: With its umbrella alliance that was once projected as an alternative to the mainstream Dravidian parties now in shambles, the Bharatiya Janata Party is launching last-ditch efforts for saving the alliance with DMDK and PMK. The BJP also appears ready to knock at the doors of AIADMK in case its efforts to revive the state NDA fails.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar is expected to be in Chennai on Saturday morning for a two-day visit during which he is likely to meet DMDK leader Vijayakant and PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss to convince them to bury their differences and be part of the alliance that won two seats in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The move to rush Javadekar is said to have been spawned by reports that the DMDK is seriously considering tie-up with the DMK by bargaining for a handsome number of seats and possibly share in power if the DMK does not get majority on its own.
BJP senior L Ganesan said on Friday his party was averse to talking only with the People's Welfare Alliance and the DMK-led combine since Left parties and Congress are part of them respectively. Barring these two alliances, the BJP can talk to any political party, he said, in a clear indication there would be no problem talking to AIADMK.
Mr Ganesan's comments add credence to speculation in national political circles that the BJP has opened back-channel talks with the AIADMK for an electoral understanding. However, the AIADMK has not yet revealed its cards.
BJP sources told Deccan Chronicle that their national leadership has always been interested in forging poll ties with the AIADMK, but the state unit is against it.
"An alliance with AIADMK would help the BJP nationally, not just in the state. This would automatically allow BJP to bank on AIADMK members in Rajya Sabha where the BJP is in a minority. We have been proposing it to the national leadership for long," a senior BJP leader based in Delhi said, adding that it was for the AIADMK to decide on the tie-up.
While the DMDK has kept its electoral strategy close to chest, the PMK has gone one step ahead by declaring that it would ally only with parties that accept Anbumani as the chief minister candidate.
