2016 Tamil Nadu elections: BJP dismisses reports of alliance with DMK

Feb 11(AZINS) BJP on Thursday dismissed reports of a possible alliance with DMK for the coming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and said the exercise of forming a tie up with a party would be completed before the announcement of poll dates.

"It is a figment of one's imagination to think of an alliance with DMK...there is no information from high command on this. BJP will form an alliance for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls before announcement of poll dates," party state president, Tamilisai Soundararajan said. She stated this when asked about reports of a possible alliance with DMK.

On February 4, BJP president Amit Shah had said in Kochi that the party was open to the question of alliance and that they were weighing all options. He had said this when asked about alliance and his party leader Subramanian Swamy pitching for a new "DMK-DMDK-BJP" front.

Soundararajan said the interim budget to be presented by Tamil Nadu government on February 16 should be a 'people oriented' one. Government should also announce total prohibition in the budget session, she said.

On the subject, she referred to her father, senior Congress leader Kumari Ananthan being hospitalised on Feb 9 after he fainted while on a padayatra demanding total prohibition and said the state government should fulfill his demand, considering that he had undertaken such an exercise.

Ananthan had launched his padayatra on December 25, 2015 from Chennai to Kanyakumari. The BJP leader said the party has urged Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to expedite all pending projects in Tamil Nadu as announced in the last budget and also accord priority to the state in this budget.