Not pressing for share in power, PM Modi might visit Thiruparankundram temple: TN BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran

Denying that the BJP has been pressing for a share in power with three cabinet berths from the AIADMK, heading the NDA in Tamil Nadu, in the event of the alliance winning the assembly election, party state president Nainar Nagenthran on Monday made it clear that the party’s sole agenda was to remove the ruling DMK from power.

”Because the Congress raises the demand for power with the DMK, we need not follow suit. We are not pressing for a coalition government with the AIADMK,” he told the media in Madurai, countering reports that the saffron party has been insisting on this with the AIADMK, which has been delaying seat-sharing talks. He also denied that the BJP was demanding 56 seats for itself and some of its minor allies, like the Tamil Maanila Congress of former Union Minister GK Vasan. “It is all mere rumours,” he added.

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While the AIADMK had finalised the seat-sharing agreement with the OBC Vanniyar- dominant PMK of the Anbumani faction, the number of seats allotted has been kept a secret. With the BJP formal parleys having only begun a couple of days before, when Nainar called on AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). Both parties are yet to seal the deal. On which parties would be inducted into the NDA, he said, “It would be decided by EPS, Amit Shah, and Piyush Goyal, who is the BJP in-charge for Tamil Nadu.”

Since Madurai is one of the possible venues for the Prime Minister’s January 23 visit to the state, he was here to inspect the venue near Pandi Kovil on the outskirts of the temple city. Nainar was accompanied by BJP leaders and local AIADMK functionaries. “The public meeting would be the first major show of the NDA in which leaders of all the constituents will share the dais with the Prime Minister. It would be preceded by a massive roadshow,” he said.

With the BJP keeping the heat on the deepam issue alive, Nainar said if the Prime Minister visits Madurai, he might visit the ancient Murugan temple at Thiruparankundram, one of the famed six abodes of the quintessential Tamil deity. Being the highly popular god of the Tamils, the BJP has latched on to the deepam issue—lighting the Karthigai Deepam at the stone pillar, claimed to be a deepathoon, adjacent to the 14th Sikkandar Darga atop the Thiruparankundram hillock, which houses the Murugan temple at the foothills. While a Division Bench of the Madras High Court has upheld the order of a single judge directing lighting deepam at the stone pillar, the Tamil Nadu government had challenged it in the Supreme Court. The state contends that there was no evidence to prove that the stone pillar was a deepathoon and the long-standing tradition was to light deepam at the deepa mantapa near the Uchi Pillaiyar temple in the middle hillock, right above the sanctum sanctorum of the Murugan temple below.

Though the venue is yet to be decided, other places like Chennai and Trichy are also under consideration for the PM’s rally, Nainar said.

Rejecting the opposition criticism that the BJP is using the Censor Board to target actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay by delaying the issue of film certification, he said, “The BJP has nothing to do with it. The BJP has no rhyme or reason to target Vijay and deny censor certification for ‘Jana Nayagan’. Even for the movie ‘Parasakthi’, the CBFC had given the film certification only after its conditions were met,” he maintained.