Chennai: With 2019 not far away and parties in search of alliances, leader of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam TTV Dinakaran has ruled out any alliance with either the BJP or the DMK.
After winning the AIADMK stronghold RK Nagar, TTV Dinakaran is confident that his party will win 37 out of 40 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The AIADMK is living in fear and behaving like slaves to the BJP, said Dinakaran in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18.
Here are the edited excerpts from the interview.
Q) Will your party form an alliance with any of the national parties, say the BJP or the Congress?
A) We will never form an alliance with the BJP and the DMK ever. AIADMK was started to take on the DMK and hence reports of Dinakaran-DMK talks are baseless. We will form an alliance with parties but let us wait and see. You will find out if there is any development on the alliance front.
Q) BJP National president Amit Shah during his recent Chennai visit said Tamil Nadu is the most corrupt state? Do you think it's a pressure tactic by the BJP on the AIADMK?
A) He (Amit Shah) is saying it generally and his statement includes the BJP because it is also a party in Tamil Nadu. So he is saying the BJP is also corrupt. Amit Shah wanted to tell the people of Tamil Nadu that they are a clean party and they want to clean Tamil Nadu but people of Tamil Nadu are intelligent. They know who should be their leader and which party should run the government. The BJP does not have to use any pressure tactic. The AIADMK is living in fear and behaving like slaves to the BJP. So why should the BJP mount more pressure on the EPS-OPS factions? The AIADMK is afraid of them (BJP).
Q) How do you view Congress’ strategy to form a grand alliance to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections?
A) It is natural that the opposition at the national level will try to consolidate all the regional opposition parties to win the upcoming elections.
Q) Talking about the 2019 elections, it is going to be a tough fight for your party?
A) We will contest all 40 constituencies — 39 in Tamil Nadu and 1 in Puducherry. We will form a very good alliance for Lok Sabha Polls and we will surely win 37 seats which were won by my great leader (Jayalalithaa) in 2014 elections.
Q) Will the vote bank for the EPS-OPS camps be impacted in the absence of Jayalalithaa?
A) In the present situation, there is no vote bank for the AIADMK. It comprises Ministers, MLAs and office bearers. People of Tamil Nadu are not supporting the existing government. Ninety per cent of the AIADMK party cadre are with us. The EPS-OPS factions only have the party name, the symbol. They will surely lose deposit in all the 40 constituencies for Lok Sabha elections and all the 234 constituencies in the State Assembly elections.
Q) In the recent I-T raids on a state highways contractor and his firm SPK group is there a larger political message?
A) Three months ago, our MLA, P Vetrivel, came out with evidence on a scam involving Edappadi K Palaniswami's relative winning all the State Highways projects. The I-T raids unearthed more than Rs 160 cr and gold worth 100 kgs. People of Tamil Nadu are aware of the corruption that exists in the ruling government. Every person in the state is aware of the I-T raids linked to the Chief Minister. This will surely reflect in the elections.
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