The party recently concluded its seat-sharing deal in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand.
The saffron party was given a dare by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), its former ally. A senior AIADMK leader, while addressing the party event, dared the BJP to field External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from Tamil Nadu.
"Can BJP field union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar from any constituency in Tamil Nadu for upcoming general election... if they indeed believe their support has grown?" KP Munusamy asked while addressing the event, NDTV reported.
Currently, both S Jaishankar and Nirmala Sitharaman are members of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Karnataka and Gujarat, but there is no clear indication that if they would be contesting Lok Sabha elections. A first list of candidates is expected from BJP today. The list may include name PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The dare remark thrown by AIADMK leader comes in the backdrop of current bitter relationship between the party and BJP.
In September last year, the ties were snapped between AIADMK and BJP. The reason said to be the triggering point was remarks by BJP's Tamil Nadu chief, K Annamalai, about late former Chief Minister CN Annadurai. Annadurai was Tamil Nadu's first Chief Minister, and also AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran's mentor. Annamalai refused to apologise for the remarks, which later led to breakaway between both the parties.
Kajal Agarwal
