BJP assails DMK chief for 'appeasement' policy

Chennai, Mar 10 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today condemned DMK President M Karunanidhi for his alleged appeasement of minority community for the sake of votes.

Addressing a press conference here, BJP State President C P Radhakrishnan alleged the DMK Chief did not condemn the blasts at Varanasi, due to fear of losing minority votes which was a 'dangerous attitude.' Condeming certain lines in Mr Karunanidhi's poem titled 'Verkalai Thedi' (In Search of Roots), the BJP leader assailed the alleged reference to Ayodhya which, the DMK leader had said, was the root cause of problems in the country.

Mr Radhakrishnan said the BJP was holding talks with some Dalit outfits and a few other political parties to forge alliance for the May eight Assembly elections.

The party had formed three committees -- finance, election and manifesto -- for the elections.

The election manifesto and list of candidates will be finalised by March 20 and sent to the Central leadership.

The process of receiving applications from ticket aspirants, which began today, will continue till March 14, he added.

To a question, the BJP leader said no efforts had been initiated so far to strike an alliance with the ruling AIADMK. There were no feelers from the newly-formed parties as well, he added.

On the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's allegation that the BJP had deviated from the Hindu ideology, Mr Radhakrishnan said the party considered 'Hindutva' to be the ''country's oxygen.'' UNI AKN GM VD KN1523