Anurag Thakur is the Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister (File).
Tamil Nadu's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday rubbished talk of a "silent alliance" with rivals - the AIADMK - to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out of the state. DMK spokesperson Dr SAS Hafeezullah told NDTV "BJP's ideology is enough to keep (voters) away in Tamil Nadu".
Dr Hafeezullah was responding to Union Minister Anurag Thakur's claim this morning the DMK and AIADMK were working together against the BJP, which secured less than 3.7 per cent of the votes in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and less than three per cent in the 2021 Assembly poll.
"BJP's ideology is enough to keep (voters) away in Tamil Nadu... there is no need for any 'tactical alliance' with the AIADMK," he said dismissing claims the BJP is the "major opposition party".
"AIADMK is the principal opposition in Tamil Nadu... BJP is nowhere," he said.
In 2019 the BJP - allied with the AIADMK - won zero Lok Sabha seats; the AIADMK won one.
In the Assembly poll two years later the BJP - still with the AIADMK - contested 20 of 234 seats and won four. The AIADMK won 66 of 191 and S Ramadoss' Pattali Makkal Katchi claimed five of 21.
After two successive flops in major elections, the AIADMK and BJP broke-up in September, aided by barbs from the latter's state unit boss, K Annamalai, targeting iconic leaders from the former.
After the break-up, the saffron party had tried to heal the rift but failed to do so. Now each is expected to contest the April 19 election apart from the other, with only local parties as allies.
The DMK will contest this election with the Congress as its ally; it is part of the INDIA bloc.
Hours earlier Mr Thakur told NDTV that the AIADMK-BJP split "is not a setback".
Mr Thakur also attacked the DMK and the AIADMK for having "failed" the people of Tamil Nadu.
"People see hope in BJP..." he claimed, "Centre has provided all help to Tamil Nadu (and is) willing to help in the future. There is a set formula for central packages. Sensationalising won't help."
The Tamil Nadu government - furious over what it and the opposition INDIA bloc says is the BJP's discrimination against states it does not rules - has moved the Supreme Court seeking an ex-parte order to the centre to release Rs 2,000 crore relief for districts ravaged by floods in December.
The state had accused the centre of differential treatment in release of such funds, arguing it is tantamount to discrimination and violates peoples' fundamental rights. Similar claims have been made by Karnataka - which approached the top court for drought relief funds from the centre.
On this topic, the DMK's Dr Hafeezullah hit out at the BJP, declaring "Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi instantly allotted Rs 1,000 crore for Gujarat after the cyclone... but centre does only lip-service for Tamil Nadu after floods," he said, pointing out the Rs 900 crore was "mandatory". "Even after three months the centre hasn't released funds," he added, pointing out the Rs 900 crore was not "charity".
The fight over the release of funds to southern states - whether for disaster relief or as part of dues from tax devolution - also made its way to the Parliament in February, where Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury sparred over the allegations that non-BJP state governments are "deprived of (financial) dues" and allocations.
An incensed Ms Sitharaman hit back, saying "devolution of taxes (i.e., sharing of funds between centre and states)... happens as per Finance Commission recommendation".
On this subject the Supreme Court today called on the centre and states to cooperate rather than compete with each other.