Annamalai says there is ‘no problem’ between BJP and AIADMK

PTI, Sep 21, 2023, 3:00 PM IST

BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai on Thursday asserted that there is no problem between his party and the AIADMK.

He also said that he does not have any problem with any AIADMK leader. The ”common thread” that linked like-minded parties in the NDA is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all who accept his candidature for the post of PM in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are in the NDA alliance, he said.

”Does the AIADMK accept it? Yes,” Annamalai said. All those who have accepted Modi’s leadership should join hands, he told reporters here. The BJP leader reiterated that he had not spoken ill of Dravidian icon and late Chief Minister C N Annadurai and had only recounted an incident from 1956.

Hence, he said there is no question of tendering an apology. Late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi had recalled the same incident during his tenure as chief minister in 1998, he said. Ideologically, the AIADMK and BJP are divergent, and the differences in terms of ideological standpoints are not unusual and it is not a big deal, he said. ”What is important is the common thread, which is Prime Minister Modi and the AIADMK stands for a united nation with a strong leadership to lead it,” he added.