The DMK's decision to join the National Democratic Alliance has enthused the Bharatiya Janata Party's leadership.
Most BJP leaders claim that the combination would now sweep all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the one in Pondicherry.
The BJP's parliamentary board, which is slated to meet soon, is likely to endorse the alliance and discuss the party's electoral strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.
It is also likely to discuss the political fallout of the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by Sharad Pawar.
The fact that the DMK joined the NDA, disregarding theTamil Maanila Congress, indicates that the Vajpayee factor will weigh heavily with the Tamil Nadu's electorate, one BJP leader said.
Party spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu claimed that the combination would be formidable and win a majority of seats in the state.
The DMK's infrastructural support combined with the support of other parties and a groundswell of support for Vajpayee had made the combination very powerful, he added.
Naidu said there would be no seat adjustment problem with the DMK as the partys' chief K Karunanidhi had already announced that it would be decided by a committee comprising members from all parties. The
BJP had contested five seats in alliance with the AIADMK in the last Lok Sabha elections and
won four.
The BJP spokesperson claimed that while the BJP-led alliance was getting stronger, its principal adversary, the Congress, was being faced with desertions in its ranks. He was referring to the Congressmen who had quit the party after Pawar formed the NCP.
Recent political developments had ensured that the polarisation during elections would be triangular, he said, adding that this would work to the advantage of the BJP and its allies.
He criticised the Left Parties for supporting the Congress even as they formed the Congress' principal opposition in West Bengal and Kerala.
The Communists were merely worried about the BJP and
were ready to do anything
and everything to defeat it, he pointed out.
In that case the BJP's adversaries would be faced with a dilemma on campaign issues in these states, he said. The CPM's contest against the BJP would give rise to sharp polarisation in these states, he added. size=2>
Anand, Justice
