BJP rejects charge it is trying to divide DMK

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today dismissed the charge that it was attempting to "divide" the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and said it had become a practice to blame the saffron party for any problem.

Condemning DMK deputy general secretary Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan's yesterday's remarks, Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan said there was no need and reason for her party to indulge in such acts.

Speaking at the DMK's executive meeting, Jagadeesan had accused the BJP of trying to divide the party in the wake of its chief M Karunanidhi's death and stressed on unity among the ranks.

She had made the charge a day after Karunanidhi's estranged son M K Alagiri claimed that all the loyal party workers were with him and accused his brother and DMK working president M K Stalin of blocking his return to the party, from which he was expelled in 2014.

Soundararajan said the rivalry between Stalin and Alagiri was not new.

"I strongly condemn this. There is no need and no reason for dividing the DMK. They blame the BJP for anything, whether it be some problem in the AIADMK or even in the Congress," she told reporters here.

"Are Stalin and Alagiri fighting only today?.... Did their fight start only after the BJP came to power (at the Centre)?," she asked.

Tamil Nadu BJP general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan had also rejected the DMK's charge yesterday, saying it was wrong to assume any link between Alagiri and the saffron party.

The critics of the BJP had accused the party of trying to "weaken" the AIADMK after the death of its general secretary and late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December, 2016.