Chennai: The AIADMK said on Saturday that its poll pact with the BJP "is in national interest" and closely followed in the footsteps of late supremo J Jayalalithaa, who had struck such an alliance with the saffron outfit in 1998.
On the eve of the 71st birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa, AIADMK top leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami exhorted party workers to take a vow to bag "magnificent victories like Puratchi Thalaivi Amma," in the ensuring Parliament elections and also in the bypolls expected to 21 Assembly seats.
"We have cobbled up a victorious alliance that would guard national interests like the one sewn by Puratchi Thalaivi in 1998," the two top leaders said in a letter to AIADMK cadres.
The AIADMK alliance had bagged 30 out of the total of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu in 1998 Lok Sabha elections, including the three won by the BJP. The rest went to the DMK camp.
Seeking to further defend its decision to go with the BJP, which is facing strong criticism from the DMK over various issues, including "infringing" states' autonomy, the AIADMK said it would continue to remain committed to its core political ideologies, including guarding secularism, state autonomy and social justice.
"On the event of the birth anniversary of our beloved mentor Amma, let us take a vow to toil for a magnificent victory and guard our party," the OPS/EPS letter said.
