'DPA not so strong'

BJP national council member, Dr HV Hande, said that notion that the DMK-led DPA was 'arithmetically strong' was merely a perception. Citing Orissa as an example, he insisted there was no anti-incumbency factor in Tamil Nadu.

BJP national council member, Dr HV Hande, said on Wednesday that the 'perception' in Tamil Nadu that the DMK-led DPA was 'arithmetically strong' was 'entirely wrong'.

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"We will shortly see that the so-called anti-incumbency factor in Tamil Nadu will be pulverized by the hectic, consistent and effective tour and mass contact undertaken by the state Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, during the last forty days, the like of which has had no parallel in any other state in the country," he said in a statement here.

Hande, a former AIADMK minister, said in Orissa, even a five year period anti-incumbency 'virus' was totally set aside by the hard work of Naveen Patnaik, as per the exit polls.

He felt that a landslide victory for the AIADMK and BJP combine was assured in the state including the metropolis, due to the combination of a number of factors, such as the Vajpayee factor, intra-party quarrels inside the Congress in ten constituencies it was contesting, the negative vote bank of the PMK and the 'falling image' of the Congress due to its alliance with the DMK and MDMK.