Chennai: Cooperation minister Sellur K. Raju is clear his AIADMK party should not cooperate with the BJP, ever. The party lost the recent RK Nagar bypoll badly only because of public anger at its closeness with the ‘communal BJP’ whereas TTV Dhinakaran scored his handsome win by attacking the saffron party and getting the minority votes, Raju told an AIADMK workers’ meet at Madurai late Wednesday.
“Amma (Jayalalithaa) had always been clear in her mind that we should never have alliance with the communal BJP even as she continued to enjoy close rapport with Narendra Modi. And so, we must never have alliance with the BJP. Let us function independently and not entertain any alliance in future”, said Raju.
“TTV Dhinakaran became a hero only because he opposed the BJP. People were already angry with the BJP due to the GST and many other factors. Taking advantage of this, Dhinakaran in his RK Nagar campaign had fiercely attacking the BJP, which earned him huge support, particularly the minorities”, minister Raju said.
While Raju was so vociferous in his condemnation of the BJP as a communal party and swearing that the AIADMK would never have any truck with it, his colleague Rajenthra Bhalaji said exactly the opposite. “There’s every possibility of our party aligning with the BJP”, the dairy development minister said at his Sivakasi constituency on Thursday when reporters sought his response to Sellur Raju’s attack on the BJP.
Elaborating, Bhalaji told Deccan Chronicle that there was “nothing wrong” in having alliance with the BJP since “both the DMK and the AIADMK have had alliance with the BJP in the past. Besides, the BJP was now ruling 19 states across the country, so there was nothing wrong having alliance with that party, Bhalaji said, adding that the party high command would take an appropriate decision at the right time.
Asked if minister Sellur Raju had the party approval before ruling out future alliance with the BJP, former minister K.P. Munusamy said the contradictory statements made by Raju and Bhalaji “are an internal matter of the AIADMK and the media need not poke its nose”.
