Arun Lakshman /Chennai
The BJP and the DMK have engaged in a spat after the national president of the saffron party, J.P. Nadda terming the DMK as ‘Dynasty’ party. The DMK retorted in the same vigour with the party mouthpiece, ‘ Murasoli’ terming BJP having several dynasties in its fold and cited the names of many leaders who have a political lineage and background.
The BJP national president, J.P. Nadda who was on a tour in the state termed the ruling DMK as a ‘Dynasty’ while addressing a public meeting at Palladam in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. Nadda said,” DMK’s is a dynastic rule. It is a family rule. You can’t imagine anyone from outside the family becoming leaders in the DMK’.
Not to be left behind ‘Murosoli’ the mouthpiece of the DMK in a hard-hitting article on Friday mentioned the names of several BJP leaders who have a family background with the saffron party across the country. It cited the example of Union I&B Minister, Anurag Singh Thakur whose father Prem Kumar Dhumal was a BJP Chief Minister, Piyush Goyal whose father late V.P. Goel was a BJP leader and Union Shipping Minister, Dushyanth Singh, son of Vasundhara Raje Scindia, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Pankaj Singh son of Union Defense Minister, Rajnath Singh, Abhishekh Singh son of former Chattisgarh Chief Minister, Raman Singh.
The party mouthpiece also said that there are several other BJP leaders in the block and that it was not mentioning the names of everyone due to space constraints.
R.S. Bharathy, state organizing secretary of the DMK while speaking to IANS said, “BJP has failed in Tamil Nadu even after seriously trying to make inroads piggy riding the AIADMK. Nothing happened and the allegations against the DMK have come out due to the frustration of J.P. Nadda. DMK is a political party which has a cadre base and one cannot one fine morning become a leader in our party, he or she has to come from the grass-root to become a leader.”
The BJP leadership also said that its national president’s statement has clearly upset the DMK and that the ruling party of Tamil Nadu was raking baseless allegations.
M.R. Rajendran, BJP leader at Trichy while speaking to IANS said, “BJP president had told the truth and the DMK cannot digest it. If not dynasty party, what is DMK? I am not taking any names but people know what is that party and what its background is. You cannot compare it with the BJP which has a collective leadership and in certain cases due to the grass root popularity of some leaders, party would have promoted some leaders but ultimately the BJP is a political party that practices inclusive politics and draws opinion from all corners.”
The BJP is trying desperately to enter Tamil Nadu in a big way and the party is expecting to do much better in the days to come. The Urban local body polls are slated to be in December last or in early January 2021. The BJP wants to make a mark in the urban local body polls as it received a drubbing in the recent village panchayath elections held for nine districts.
R. Padmanaban, Director, Socio-Economic Development Foundation, a think tank based out of Madurai while speaking to IANS said,” DMK has to retort to BJP in this manner or else it would affect the morale of the party cadres. More than that the points raised by the DMK are valid and BJP does not have an answer. It is true that BJP has not yet understood the pulse of Tamil Nadu or rather Dravida movements. If the BJP wants to achieve something, they have to first understand the Tamil society, and raising allegations that DMK is a dynastic party won’t do. BJP could have raised other issues like the failure of the Stalin government to implement several promises in the election manifesto instead of using the dynasty tag. DMK has exposed the BJP on this as the saffron party does not have an answer to what Murasoli has written.”
