In his interview to The Print on Monday (Jan 3, 2022), the BJP-Tamil Nadu Chief Annamalai made it clear that his party “would not broker any peace between Sasikala and top AIADMK leaders” Edappadi Palaniswami and O.Panneerselvam.
Calling it AIADMK’s internal issue, Annamalai said that the BJP would not interfere in that. But only in December 2021, he had said that different communication channels of the BJP were working on brokering peace between Sasi & EPS-OPS.
He shared it during his interview with Jaya Menon, a Political Editor of The Times of India. Ms.Menon had asked him on December 20, 2021 whether the BJP has tried to mediate Sasikala, EPS and OPS. Answering her question, Annamalai said “That is much above my pay grade. I am not really sure … Different communication channels were at work.”
Annamalai did not confirm nor deny but shared that “Different Communication Channels” were working on that. Now it is unclear whether the efforts of these “Different Communication Channels” have not worked as they wanted, or what sort of reply did both sides (Sasi and AIADMK) give to these communication channels!
Also in his interview to The Print, Annamalai also made comments on Tamil Nadu Government, stating that its vision of reaching a $I Trillion SGDP was neither actionable nor implementable, as the government faced too much debt.
Pointing at the opinions expressed by DMK strongman and MP T.R Baalu on wishing to bring petrol and diesel under GST, while Finance Minister PTR stated that it should not, Annamalai said that the coordination between the Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers are absent.
“The problem is that one cannot see the vision of the chief minister and he is being let down by his cabinet ministers, whether it is law and order, school education or finance,” he said in his interview.
But it must be mentioned that PTR had already made a clarification that the Tamil Nadu government is ready to reconsider its decision on the issue of bringing fuel prices under the Goods and Services Tax regime, provided the Centre gives up the cess surcharge on petrol and diesel.