The BJP and the AIADMK began talks for a pre-poll alliance in Tamil Nadu with Union Minister and BJP's Tamil Nadu election in-charge Piyush Goyal arriving in Chennai on Thursday evening to meet AIADMK leaders.
Speaking to reporters at the airport on his arrival, Goyal said he was here to hold talks on an electoral alliance and that in politics all possibilities are open. “I have always had strong relationship with Tamil Nadu and the people of Tamil Nadu. Prime Minister Modi cares for Tamil Nadu. Prime Minister Modi is also confident that people of Tamil Nadu also care for him… therefore we want Tamil Nadu’s voice to be heard in New Delhi and therefore the people of Tamil Nadu to be represented in the next government that Prime Minister Modi will once again form after the elections in May 2019. My party leaders state President Tamilisai and MoS Finance Pon Radhakrishnan and all our party workers will work for the victory of our candidates so that the voice of Tamil Nadu is a bigger part of the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I have come here to discuss how we will proceed in the elections and discuss with the party leaders and other friends to chart out the path of the future,” Piyush Goyal said.
Goyal was accompanied by state BJP leaders Pon Radhakrishnan and Tamilisai Soundararajan while he went to industrialist Pollachi Mahalingam’s house in Alwarpet to meet AIADMK leaders Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Thangamani and Municipal and Rural Administration Minister SP Velumani. According to reports, talks about alliance for Lok Sabha polls were discussed in the meeting which lasted almost three hours.
"Alliance talks have begun. We are happy. This is just the beginning, but the talks were satisfactory. It will continue further," Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan told reporters at Chennai airport, after seeing off Goyal.
Earlier in the day BJP President Amit Shah, speaking in a public rally at Erode, said the party would soon form a strong electoral alliance in the state. He also attacked Congress and the DMK, parties that have joined hands in an alliance, and called it an alliance of corruption and dynastic politics.