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NDA allies in Tamil Nadu stay away from BJP’s CAA rallies
Chief minister and AIADMK joint-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) had told the state assembly on Wednesday that he had made it clear to Union home minister Amit Shah in the meeting last month that the AIADMK does not support the National Register for Citizens (NRC).
With the National Democratic alliance partners, the AIADMK and PMK, staying away from party’s pro-Citizenship (Amendement) Act, or CAA, campaigns and anti-CAA protests continuing unabated in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is left to shoulder a solo mission to counter the opposition campaign and garner mass support for the new law.
On Thursday, the BJP held fairly well-attended rallies in Madurai and Trichy. In Coimbatore, party general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan carried out an outreach programme by distributing pamphlets, extolling salient features of the amended citizenship law. However, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as well as Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), both of which voted in favour of the legislation stayed away from these campaigns.
Chief minister and AIADMK joint-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) had told the state assembly on Wednesday that he had made it clear to Union home minister Amit Shah in the meeting last month that the AIADMK does not support the National Register for Citizens (NRC).
“When I met the Union home minister, I conveyed to him that we don’t concur with NRC,” he said during a heated discussion on the CAA in the assembly on Wednesday.
The PMK had passed a resolution against the NRC at its general council meet earlier last week.
Asked as to why the party had stayed away from BJP’s pro-CAA programmes, AIADMK spokesperson Sivasankari said, “It is a programme of the BJP. It is they who have to counter the opposition...and allay the fears of the minorities that the CAA is against them...”.
Explaining the allies’ stand, the BJP state general secretary said, “It is not an NDA programme... It is a programme of the BJP. The AIADMK is preoccupied with the ongoing assembly session.”
