Chennai: Confronted by adverse criticism from several quarters that the party had secured far less votes than those polled for NOTA, the BJP on Monday attempted to turn the tables by appealing to the people not to waste their votes but use them wisely to elect a candidate with “ability and integrity.”
While alleging large scale distribution of money to city's RK Nagar Assembly constituency voters, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan said, “People should carefully select a candidate among the various contestants and elect a person who has ability and honesty to serve them”. Blaming the jailed VK Sasikala family for the “corrupt” practices, she said it was the rampant distribution of money to voters that had made people forget about development plank on which the BJP fought the byelections.
“Can good candidates be ignored”, she asked. BJP candidate for the Dec. 21 by-poll, Karu Nagarajan obtained 1,417 votes while None of the Above (NOTA) category received 2,373 votes. Rival AIADMK candidate TTV Dhinakaran won defeating his nearest rival, AIADMK's E. Madhusudhanan, by a huge margin of 40,707 votes.
Earlier, Dr Tamilisai participated in various functions organised by the BJP to celebrate the birthday of party leader and former PM AB Vajpayee as 'good governance day,” by distributing welfare aid to the poor. Poor feeding was also arranged by the BJP on the occasion. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan called on Mr. Vajpayee and greeted him at his residence in New Delhi. He later tweeted: “Former PM and our beloved Leader Shri#AtalBihariVajpayee ji turns 93 today, under his visionary leadership India shown to the world, its nuclear power capabilities. My Prayers with the Almighty for his healthy life.”
