Chennai: Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan on Wednesday called on Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami here, causing yet another tsunami of speculation that the BJP is seeking to cement alliance with the AIADMK for the Lok Sabha elections next year.
While no official explanation was given for the meeting of the two leaders, barring the release of the photograph by the state information department, some sources said it was “merely to discuss some issue relating to Kanyakumari”. But some others insisted that politics “did figure”.
Electricity minister P. Thangamani and Municipal administration minister S.P Velumani were asked by reporters at Delhi if their meeting Defence minister Nirmala Sitaraman had anything to do with negotiating alliance for the 2019 poll. Velumani took great pains to explain that the issue of alliance was a bit too complex for them to handle with the Defence Minister and their meeting was only to press for release of Central funds.
“We have our two leaders, Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, to discuss alliance. We are not involved”, he said.
But then, the writing has been rather loud and clear on the TN political wall that the ruling parties at the Centre and the state are sure partners when the elections happen-be it the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 or the Assembly elections whenever they happen.
“The BJP and the AIADMK have no option but to hold hands at poll time. They have no other allies; of course, there is the expectation that Rajinikanth will either join the BJP or launch his party and thereafter forge alliance with the BJP-AIADMK combine”, said a political analyst.
Opposition DMK has been hard in its attack on both the BJP and the AIADMK on various fronts while leaving no opportunity to slip for accusing them both of letting critical issues concerning Tamil Nadu go unattended just to protect their undeclared political coalition.
