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MADURAI/CHENNAI: Khadi and Village Industries minister G Baskaran has stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that AIADMK is waiting for an opportunity to break free from its alliance with the BJP as the people had not voted for the party in the rural local body elections because of the alliance. The minister also went on to say that there was a lot of opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act among the ministers.

Baskaran was speaking at a function to commemorate the 103rd birth anniversary of AIADMK founder MGR at Ilayankudi in Sivaganga on Tuesday. “You have spurned us, but we won’t. We are waiting for opportunity to break off from the alliance with the BJP. All the ministers are opposed to the CAA,” he said.

However, on Wednesday senior minister and AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar said Baskaran’s statement may be treated as his individual view and it has nothing to do with the party’s policy decision on the alliance. “Only the party leadership will take a call on the alliance. The leadership will take the final call ahead of the 2021 assembly elections and that will depend on the political climate,” Jayakumar told TOI. When confronted by newsmen on Wednesday at Karaikudi, Baskaran sought to ‘clarify’ that only his comment regarding CAA was correct and that their alliance with BJP was inseparable.

Responding to Baskaran’s claim, BJP general secretaries K S Narendran and Vanathi Srinivasan said the party would prefer to ignore the views of any individual functionary or minister. “The two parties have an electoral alliance which will continue. The ally’s spokesperson has also clarified it and denied the statement of his cabinet colleague over the alliance,” said Narendran. Vanathi Srinivasan said they would be concerned only if they hear it from the “horse’s mouth”. Jayakumar has cautioned party functionaries and ministers from expressing their views on the alliance or internal matters of the party at open forums.

Baskaran had also said that AIADMK candidates had lost by three or five votes in the recently concluded local body elections. This in spite of the district administration being under the control of the ruling party. ``If we wanted we could have turned these losses into victories, but we acted fairly on the directions of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami,’’ he said. ``Can you expect the same from a DMK government? They will beat you up and make you fall in line,’’ he said.

