AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami
NEW DELHI: Pushing for expansion of NDA in Tamil Nadu, BJP is crafting a high-pitched campaign to position the alliance as a natural choice for anti-DMK voters amid emergence of actor Vijay-led TVK as the third force in the state’s traditionally bipolar politics. AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami’s meeting with home minister Amit Shah, a keen votary of widening the NDA tent in the poll-bound state, on Wednesday covered a range of issues related to the alliance’s growth and agenda. That the PMK faction led by Anbumani Ramadoss was welcomed into NDA by EPS, as Palaniswami is commonly known, in Chennai hours before he met Shah in Delhi was as much about timing as about consolidating the alliance. However, EPS, the declared leader of NDA, has drawn a red line on including O Panneerselvam and Sasikala back into AIADMK or the alliance. In comments to media on Thursday, he reiterated his stand against them but offered no direct answer on TTV Dhinakaran, another former AIADMK functionary being spoken of as a prospective NDA member. BJP has long been of the view that the return of those once associated with AIADMK and its late leader J Jayalalithaa will send out a message of unity after the reverses it has suffered in elections. However, people familiar with the issue said BJP will ultimately go with EPS as it has already named him as leader of the alliance and believes an AIADMK-led front remains the best bet to defeat the DMK-Congress-Left combine. What has thrown up an imponderable in the poll equation is the emergence of TVK, which has gained in attraction for local satraps disaffected with their parent party or drawn by higher profiles on offer. With AIADMK under EPS ceding some space over the years, some functionaries have crossed over to TVK amid buzz that Panneerselvam and Dhinakaran may also move to the new outfit. A BJP functionary likened the attention and crowds Vijay is drawing to the buzz poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor had generated in Bihar, before his party came a cropper in the polls. Sources added that BJP would like to bring together all political forces, including TVK, opposed to the DMK-led front, but Vijay’s projection of himself as the CM candidate and criticism of BJP’s ideology have made such a prospect improbable. In fact, TVK has called Congress a natural ally amid a section of the national party openly indicating their unhappiness with DMK’s refusal to share power and warm up to TVK. With issues far from settled in the state’s governing alliance, NDA is planning to tie up the loose ends and shape the poll agenda by building a high-octane campaign around alleged corruption and misgovernance.
