CHENNAI: The comprehensive defeat in all 40 LS seats has sparked a churning in AIADMK and BJP with leaders of the parties voicing opinion about what could have been done better and the way forward for the two parties to get back to winning ways.
AIADMK former minister S P Velumani blamed BJP chief K Annamalai for the split in AIADMK-BJP ties just ahead of the election, and claimed that had the alliance remained intact, it would have won 30 to 35 seats. While Annamalai rejected it, former Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan supported the idea. “What Velumani said is realistic. DMK would not have won all the seats had BJP been in alliance with AIADMK,” Tamilisai said. But Annamalai questioned Velumani’s rationale and wondered how it could be accepted when the AIADMK had failed to win even a single seat on its own.
Meanwhile, former CM O Panneerselvam sought retrieval of AIADMK and said “consoling cadres and making them get accustomed to defeat is a sin.” “It is easy to break one stick but difficult to break a bundle of sticks,” he said. AIADMK deputy general secretary K P Munusamy, however, dismissed OPS’s appeal as an attempt to create confusion. “OPS has no right to talk about unity. He joined hands with the BJP to freeze AIADMK’s ‘two-leaves’ symbol,” Munusamy said.
Ex-guv backs Ex-Min
“What ex-minister Velumani said is realistic. The DMK would not have won all the 40 seats had BJP been in alliance with the AIADMK,” said former governor Dr Tamilisai