Chennai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make a serious bid to take power in Tamil Nadu by leading an alliance in the 2016 assembly elections, its president Amit Shah said yesterday.
Shah said the BJP would mobilise 60 lakh new members in Tamil Nadu and it would be the largest party in the state in 2016.
He also told reporters that the party would lead an alliance during the next assembly elections and also declare its chief ministerial candidate.
Meanwhile, sidelined DMK leader and former Union minister D Napoleon joined BJP in the presence of Shah here yesterday.
Napoleon, 51, had resigned from the DMK on Saturday. He was a minister in the Congress-led UPA government. He was a supporter of MK Alagiri, another former central minister and a son of DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
Napolean was sidelined in the party because of his closeness to Alagiri. Napoleon entered politics as an assistant to his uncle and DMK leader KN Nehru. In 2001, Napoleon entered the Tamil Nadu assembly from Villivakam constituency here. In 2009, Napoleon won the Perambalur Lok Sabha constituency and was made the minister of state for social justice and empowerment in the UPA government. IANS
