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N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday ruled out any alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu.
Talking to newsmen after calling on alliance partner Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi -- his first after taking over as BJP chief -- Naidu said, "Our alliance with the DMK and other parties in the state stays."
"We can react to it, only when there is a proposal for alliance with the AIADMK," he said when asked whether his party was mulling a tie-up with the AIADMK.
However, Naidu clarified that the BJP-ruled Centre would continue to 'maintain good relations' with the AIADMK state government.
"We will not discriminate against any state. Where the interests of the people are involved, we will work together with the state government," he said.
Naidu parried questions about the differences between the DMK and the state unit of the BJP.
On a three-day visit to the city, he said the Tamil Nadu unit, like those facing assembly elections next year, has been asked to rejuvenate the party and also train a battery of platform-speakers like the Dravidian parties.
Naidu reiterated the state BJP's reservations about the bifurcation demand of the alliance partner Pattali Makkal Katchi chief S Ramadoss.
"No such proposal has come up before the ruling BJP-NDA at the Centre," he said.
"Consideration of such a demand presupposes a political consensus and the state assembly passing a resolution," Naidu said, adding, "this was the procedure followed when three new states were formed in the north, the year before last."
The BJP chief asserted that the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko's detention was not a fit case for invoking the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
"The Prevention of Terrorism Act," he said, "is essentially meant for fighting terrorism."
He claimed that there was nothing in Vaiko's Thirumangalam speech allegedly supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that warranted the invocation of the POTA.
"Yet, the BJP does not approve the MDMK's support for the LTTE," he added.
Naidu refused to comment if Vaiko's detention would pave the way for Parliament amending the POTA.
"This is the first instance of its kind, and let us wait and see," he said.
Referring to Gujarat, Naidu rejected the opposition demand for President's rule in the state. He charged the Congress rival and other opposition parties with 'inability' to face the electorate, and said, "Chief Minister Narendra Modi enjoyed two-thirds majority in the assembly when he recommended dissolution. As such, there is no question of imposing President's rule under Article 356 of the Constitution."
Naidu pointed out that it was the opposition that had wanted Modi's resignation at the height of the communal carnage in the state. "Now he has resigned his post, that too after restoring normalcy, and they are opposed to it," he said.
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