The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) seems to be keen on sending a strong signal to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that it could not be taken for granted in the State. The ruling party’s “aggression” towards the latter would have been unimaginable six months ago.
It is now the turn of the BJP to go on defensive in the face of a no-holdsbarred attack on the party by the propaganda secretary of the AIADMK and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker, M. Thambi Durai. As of now, he does not seem to have been reined in. Also, his is not a solitary voice.
About 10 days ago, Information Minister Kadambur C. Raju responded strongly to the criticism of the State government by BJP’s State unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan. “The lotus [the BJP’s symbol] will never bloom here. Let the BJP get more votes than NOTA in at least one Assembly constituency,” was Mr. Raju’s answer to Ms. Soundararajan’s description of the AIADMK regime as an “unhealthy administration.”