No Ties with BJP in TN: PMK

CHENNAI:“PMK’s ties with the BJP are over. But we want BJP to announce it,” said PMK founder S Ramadoss on Saturday in an interview to a Tamil TV channel.

Ramadoss had, at the beginning of the interview, said that the alliance with BJP was only at the national level and not at the State level. 

When asked whether the alliance between the PMK and BJP is just short of an official announcement declaring it over, Ramadoss answered in the affirmative. To another query as to whether the NDA had collapsed, Ramadoss said “Definitely.” 

Answering queries about criticisms from BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu that PMK had violated the ‘alliance dharma’ by announcing its Chief Ministerial candidate, Ramadoss quipped : “Alliance dharma? Had there been an alliance, there would have been a common minimum programme.  After the Lok Sabha elections were over, the BJP should have convened the meeting of all alliance parties. But that did not happen. As such, I am forced to believe that the BJP intended to end the alliance with the conclusion of Lok Sabha elections.”

Ramadoss admitted that it was a mistake to have allied with the Dravidian parties in the past. He reiterated that there will not be any change in the party’s decision to contest the 2016 Assembly elections without any alliance.