In an interaction with booth workers from some constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the Mahagatbandhan is an “unholy alliance” of various political parties for “personal survival” in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) booth workers from Chennai Central, Chennai North, Madurai, Tiruchirappally and Tiruvallur constituencies, the PM said, “Today several leaders are talking about a grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan. This alliance is for personal survival, and is not ideology-based support. This alliance is for power, not for the people. This alliance is for personal ambitions, not people’s aspirations.”

Speaking to the booth workers, the PM also took a dig at the Congress underlining their stand in the Jain Commission matter.

“No one has forgotten where the Congress and DMK stood on the Jain Commission. That time Congress said ‘either it is DMK or it is us’, but today they want to be together. If not opportunism, what explains their alliance?” he said.

“These so called Grand Alliances are a club of rich dynasties, there only to promise family rule. People can see through their opportunism and will never accept such an incoherent coalition,” he said.

The prime minister recalled that the key constituent of the mega alliance – the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) – was formed against the very “high-handedness” of the Congress by the veteran, late chief minister NT Rama Rao but said the party was now keen to join hands with the Congress.

“Some parties in the Mahagatbandhan claimed to be inspired by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, but the veteran himself opposed the Congress and its ideologies,” Modi said.

While several parties and leaders in the coalition claimed to be deeply inspired by Lohia, he said “was deeply opposed to the Congress,” Modi said.

Many leaders in the coalition were “arrested and tortured” during the Emergency, he said without referring to anyone.

The Congress “ecosystem” spared none, he said and pointed out at the dismissal of the AIADMK government of late chief minister MG Ramachandran in 1980 though he had people’s support.

Mahagathbandhan is a grand alliance of opposition parties against the BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

(With inputs from agencies.)