COIMBATORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party State president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would field its candidates in the civic body by-polls slated for September 18.
Addressing reporters here, Soundararajan said, “The BJP-led alliance will definitely contest the upcoming elections. We will announce the candidates on September 3, a day after meeting with our allies.”
A day earlier, the State president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan told Express that while she was personally in favour of the party contesting the civic by-polls, it was for the BJP’s State election committee to take a final decision.
Exuding confidence that the alliance would bag a substantial number of seats, she said that the defeats in the recently-concluded by-elections in Bihar and Haryana were not a setback.
“The party’s vote bank in those states has risen substantially,” she said.
Stating that the alliance would improve its record in the State Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Partychief said, “In 100 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has carried out development works, which the Congress regime failed to undertake in 10 years of governance. Inflation has been brought under control and employment opportunity is being generated.”
Soundararajan was here on way to Salem attend the marriage of the daughter of C P Radhakrishnan, who was the party’s Coimbatore candidate in the Lok Sabha election.
Sources said that Union Urban Development and Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP’s general secretary Muralidhar Rao would be among the top leaders attending in the marriage.