Chennai: In a major climbdown, the BJP has come around to accept the reality that it is the prerogative of its Dravidian ally, the AIADMK, to decide on the question of Chief Ministerial candidate for the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. Giving up the claim that only the NDA leadership could take a call on the matter, BJP national general secretary C T Ravi on Monday made it clear that the ruling AIADMK was well within its right to declare its nominee.
This U-turn comes close on the heels of superstar Rajinikanth opting out of politics and the AIADMK General council endorsing the candidature of incumbent EPS as its face for the polls. Ever since the 11-member Steering Committee of the AIADMK announced EPS as the CM nominee in October last, the BJP had lost no opportunity to arrogate to itself the right to have its choice as the CM face of the alliance. Central leaders of the saffron party, including Prakash Javadekar, have lent credence to it. Ravi, a firebrand of the saffron camp, had more than once had stated this explicitly.
This has led to a war of words between the allies with the AIADMK throwing the gauntlet at the BJP, albeit without naming it, that parties unwilling to accept EPS would have no place in the alliance. Senior AIADMK leader KP Munusamy, party's Deputy Coordinator, had gone to the extent of basting the BJP at the party fora. “National parties are of no consequence in Tamil Nadu. Without any base, they were riding on the back of the AIADMK and the DMK,” was his outburst at the General Council meeting. Earlier, he had accused 'a cabal of being engaged in vanquishing the Dravidian movement right from the days of Periyar EV Ramasamy and CN Annadurai'.
Now, Ravi had made a plain-speak saying that it is the AIADMK's right. “As the dominant party in the alliance, the AIADMK will have its choice of CM candidate. The criticism of Munusamy and others is immaterial since EPS and OPS (Dy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam) are unwavering in the alliance with the BJP,” the BJP leader told reporters at Trichy after darshan at the famed 6th century Rock Fort temple.