Jaya's attack shows BJP has emerged a viable alternative: Rao

Rattled by AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's sharp attack on it and its leader Narendra Modi, BJP today said this only showed the party has emerged as a "viable alternative" to Dravidian majors in Tamil Nadu.
A day after Jayalalithaa mounted a scathing attack on Gujarat development model calling it a "myth", BJP National General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao reeled out some statistics to back Modi's claims, indicating that the western state was ahead of Tamil Nadu in some sectors, and said his party was ready for an "informed debate" with AIADMK.
"I don't know why she has criticised (BJP and Modi). I can only infer. BJP-led NDA has emerged as a competitor and is now in the reckoning and there is a real fight (in the poll battle). That might have made her target BJP," Rao told a press conference here.

Asked why BJP did not attack Jayalalithaa in the initial days of electioneering, he said the focus was on issues concerning central government as the main intention was to unseat the Congress.
In her sharpest attack against Modi, Jayalalithaa had said her state was better placed than Gujarat in various social and economic indicators even as she accused that state government of focussed more on "marketing" itself while describing as a "myth" its development model.
Rejecting this, Rao said Modi, and for that matter, other BJP-ruled states of Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were only marketing their achievements.

In some areas, states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were ahead of Gujarat and that state was only trying to catch up with them, he said.

On Jayalalithaa's criticism that BJP was no different from Congress on the Cauvery issue, Rao recalled the NDA government under A B Vajpayee had done a lot in this regard and reaffirmed his party's commitment for river inter-linking.
BJP was equally committed for the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils and fishermen issue, he added.