NDA alliance gets off the ground

The NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu got off to a formal launch in Chennai on Thursday with Rajnath Singh, president of BJP that leads the formation, declaring the seat-sharing agreement.

The NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu got off to a formal launch in Chennai on Thursday with Rajnath Singh, president of BJP that leads the formation, declaring the
seat-sharing agreement.

HT Image

Singh released the NDA candidate list signalling all is well in the six-party alliance his party stitched up for the 2014 general elections, but not before a dramatic dialogue with leaders of alliance parters for close to four hours.

First the press meet to present allies on a common platform was scheduled for 12.30, which was then revised and re-revised to 1.30 and 3 pm.
"Rahu kaalam" (inauspicious time) was how the delay was explained.

But at 3.50 pm too the leaders did not arrive for photo opportunity.

At the press conference that began at 4 pm, Rajnath Singh, flanked by Captain Vijayakanth, PMK leader and former union health minister Anbumani Ramdoss and MDMK leader Vaiko, said the coming together of a strong alliance will script a new chapter in Tamil Nadu politics dominated by regional Dravidian parties so far.

The BJP-led NDA pre-poll alliance at one stage had almost fallen apart with PMK vowing to walk out.

As per the seat-sharing hammered out after two months of negotiations, DMDK of Vijayakanth gets to fight in 14 seats, PMK of Ramdoss in 8, Vaiko' MDMK 7 and two others one each.

The BJP is content playing junior partner contesting just 8 seats out of the total 39 in Tamil Nadu.