Annamalai slams Alagiri, says 'TN Congress in ICU'

Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday hit out at the TN Congress Committee saying it is in the Intensive Care Unit in the state and its oxygen is its Dravidian partner DMK, without which it cannot survive.The BJP on the other hand is growing everyday and despite being in an alliance with the AIADMK, his party fought the polls to local bodies all alone and won impressively, Annamalai told reporters here.

Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday hit out at the TN Congress Committee saying it is in the Intensive Care Unit in the state and its oxygen is its Dravidian partner DMK, without which it cannot survive.

The BJP on the other hand is growing everyday and despite being in an alliance with the AIADMK, his party fought the polls to local bodies all alone and won impressively, Annamalai told reporters here. Asked on TNCC chief KS Alagiri's statement that BJP could never grow in the state, he said Alagiri has taken the Congress party in Tamil Nadu to the Intensive Care Unit. The 'oxygen' that is sustaining the national party in the state is the DMK, he said. Once that oxygen supply is snapped, the Congress party would not be able to get its deposit back in polls even in a single constituency, he said. Embossing Congress party's name in the ballot paper would be a 'waste' in such a scenario when the national party goes it alone without DMK's support, he said. Mocking Alagiri, Annamalai said the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief should stop talking about politics. Instead, Alagiri should take efforts to unite his fragmented party and the BJP is ready to provide 'fevikwick (glue)' and let him use it to put the Congress house in order. Annamalai ridiculed his party's national rival saying dhoties are offered for sale outside the Congress party office here as several dhoties of functionaries are 'torn' often due to bickering.

In 2024 Lok Sabha polls the BJP would win 25 Parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu and ''Alagiri Annan (elder brother) is going to see it and by that time the BJP would have written the 'conclusion' for the Congress in the state.

Asked if the same logic did not apply to the BJP as it is in alliance with the AIADMK, Annamalai retorted saying his party fought the recent polls to local bodies all alone.

The BJP won impressively in the local polls, he said and the party has, ''identified itself as the third biggest party, we are growing daily and getting people's support and we are happy.'' ''When you go to a gym you cannot straightaway lift 120 kgs, you have do it gradually. I am not saying that the BJP is the number 1 party in Tamil Nadu today,'' he said adding the party and cadres are however working hard towards that goal. Annamalai cited the day-long hunger strike held across the state on July 5 against the DMK government as among the several programmes being pursued by his party.

Though there are alliances between political parties across the country, Annamalai, without mentioning the Congress's name or its senior partner DMK, said that it is only in Tamil Nadu that the party has stuck to the partnership despite being insulted. The Tamil Nadu BJP president was apparently targeting the TN Congress Committee. Notwithstanding brainstorming at its conclave in Jaipur, when Congress nominated P Chidambaram to the Rajya Sabha despite his son Karthi Chidambaram already being a Lok Sabha MP, Alagiri had justified it by claiming that both belonged to two separate families as the father and son duo held separate ration cards. Alagiri's this view became the object of ridicule in Tamil Nadu, Annamalai said. In 2019 polls, people were diverted and 'wrong' criticisms were hurled at the BJP. The Congress party could garner seats in polls as it was in alliance with the DMK, he said. The BJP has been all along challenging the Congress in the state and Alagiri's desire is to field Rahul Gandhi in Kanyakumari (Parliamentary constituency). ''Let them bring anyone.'' PTI VGN ROH ROH

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