BJP to release its list for TN polls on Apr 4

Chennai, Mar 30: The BJP will release the first list of its candidates on April 4 for the May 8 elections to Tamil Nadu assembly, the party's national Secretary Bandaru Dattatreya announced today.

Addressing a press conference at the party's state unit headquarters 'Kamalalayam' here, he said the three-member state election committee headed by C P Radhakrishnan was in the process of firming up electoral understanding with a number of Dalit and cultural organisations and the Janata Party.

The list of candidates will be sent to the party's Central election committee on April 3 after the state committee finalises it on April 2, he added.

Mr Dattatreya said a number of Dalit organisations, who were dissatisfied with the two Dravidian parties as they had not cared for their welfare, had approached the BJP for representation.

Asked about AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's statement that the May 8 elections would be a contest only between her party and the DMK, Mr Dattatreya alleged that the people were fed up with the two parties and were looking for a new alternative.

''It is in this belief that the BJP has decided to go it alone in this elections'', he said, adding the party was confident about emerging as the alternative to the AIADMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu.

''We will emerge as a viable alternative'', he claimed.

Asked if the BJP believed that a 'hung assembly' would emerge after the polls, Mr Dattatreya said ''it is difficult to say that now.

But it appears to be a possibility as there is no wave against any party. But the people are closely watching.'' In the 2001 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the BJP had won four seats, contesting in alliance with the DMK, its erstwhile NDA ally at the Centre.

UNI