DMK has no hold in TN, no right to talk about alliances: Thirupathy

CHENNAI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayanan Thirupathy on Monday lashed out at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its mouthpiece Murasoli saying that the party doesn't have any hold in the state. It comes after Murasoli slammed BJP for having an alliance with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) despite having a fallout with the party in the past.

Talking to ANI, the BJP leader said, "DMK doesn't have any right to talk about alliances and dependence on the party. Right from its inception, it has been dependent on alliances. In 1967, it won due because of C Rajagopalachari. In 1971, it was in alliance with Indira Gandhi. In 1989 and 1996, it was again in the alliance. In 2006, it was called the 'Minority Government'. So DMK takes its oxygen from other parties." He alleged that DMK "bribes" parties to get into an alliance with them and has "no hold" in Tamil Nadu.

"DMK pays money to parties for getting into an alliance. It paid 10 crores for two seats to CPI(M) and 15 crores to CPI for two seats. Even in the last elections in 2021, DMK won only because of the alliance. DMK has no hold in Tamil Nadu, and Murasoli has no right to talk about alliances of the BJP. We have contested only two times in alliance, and every other time, we have contested alone. We have even challenged them many times to contest alone, but they haven't because they are weak," he said. The BJP leader further called the 1998 fallout as an 'old issue', and attacked DMK for an alliance with Congress.

"What happened in 1998 is an old issue, DMK itself stamped Congress, it got out of alliance with them in 2013, but later came back. So DMK has no right to talk about this. Also, Congress is a shameless party which is in alliance with a party, whose chief embraced the convicts of the murder of former PM Rajiv Gandhi," he added. He also attacked the Tamil Nadu government over the last year's incident when human excreta was found inside a water tank.

"Stalin has himself said that DMK is an extended arm of the Justice Party, which is nothing but Anti-Brahmin and Anti-Dalit. In a recent incident in a village near Pudukkotai, human excreta was mixed in the water tank. Till now the culprits are not arrested. It again shows that DMK is Anti-Dalit," he further said. Reacting to the detention of BJP workers who were protesting against the screening of BBC documentary on PM Modi, Narayanan Thirupathy called it "appeasement" politics".

"The Madurai Police should have arrested those who had screened the movie because it was violation of law. Even our National Secretary for Minority Affairs, Syed Ibrahim was stopped from going there. This is not just the misuse of power, but also the appeasement of minorities in the name of secularism," he added. Earlier, DMK mouthpiece Murasoli attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its alliance with AIADMK.

The mouthpiece wrote, "Prime Minister Modi did not answer any questions which were raised by DMK Parliamentary members but he has asked how the DMK can be in alliance with Congress as they have dismissed DMK governments in the past." The newspaper alleged that the questions raised by DMK were related to government and administration, but the reply of the PM was "political".

"So we also need to give a political reply to that," the newspaper wrote. It further attacked BJP referring to the collapse of the NDA government in 1998, after former Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa led AIADMK exited the alliance.

"Because of your present alliance party AIADMK only, the Vajpayee government fell, BJP can forget that but people won't forget this," the newspaper wrote. During 1998-1999, then AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalitha went to Delhi to meet President K R Narayanan and withdrew AIADMK support to the BJP. Because of this Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government lost its majority and fell.

Intensifying its attack further, Murasoli wrote, "Two days back Edapadi Palanisamy said that they don't need any alliance and they can face election individually. But in reply, BJP is saying we are in alliance with AIADMK. Don't you all feel ashamed to say this?" "BJP was talking about 'Tamil Nadu without Kazgangal', but now BJP is itself surviving on the oxygen of AIADMK," the DMK mouthpiece further wrote.