PM Modi said the BJP is open to alliances with the AIADMK, DMK or Rajinikanth as the party looks to strengthen the NDA in Tamil Nadu ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday said the BJP was open to alliances and cherished its old friends, in a hint that it was looking to strengthen the NDA in Tamil Nadu ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
In an interaction with the party’s booth-level workers from five districts in Tamil Nadu through video-conferencing, he recalled the “successful coalition politics” ushered in by former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the 1990s and said the BJP’s doors were “always open”.
“…20 years ago the visionary leader Atalji brought in a new culture in Indian politics, that of successful coalition politics. He gave utmost importance to regional aspirations…BJP has followed the way Atalji has shown us,” he said.
Modi, in this fourth interaction with the party workers in the state, was responding to questions from a worker whether the BJP would ally with AIADMK, DMK or Rajinikanth, who is yet to form his political party.
Lashing out at the Congress for “ill-treating” regional parties, he said, “What Atalji did was in direct contrast to the Congress which has never cared for regional aspirations.”
“Congress ill-treated regional political parties, aspirations and people because they felt they alone have the right to be in power,” he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu leading a rainbow alliance comprising smaller parties including PMK, MDMK of Vaiko and won two of the 39 seats — one each by the party and PMK. – PTI
Vajpayeeji had an instinctive understanding of the diversity of India, which he saw represented in Parliament. I don’t think he would have viewed the presence of coalition partners in his government – barring occasions when some of them became truly tiresome – as either a weakness or a blemish. Nor did he allow the fact that his was a coalition, rather than a unitary, government to stop him from continuing to push economic reform, including privatisation. If anything, he must have been secretaly happy that the presence of outsiders prevented him from being pressurised to do things that were not in the national interest. Aaj nahin hain, iss liye unki yaad aur bhi zyaada aati hai.