Chennai, Jan 31: K. Annamalai, the President of BJP's Tamil Nadu unit, said on Monday that the saffron party would contest the upcoming urban local body polls on its own.

The party, according to Annamalai, would field its candidates in all the constituencies of the state, as BJP functionaries want the party to contest a larger number of seats.

However, the state BJP chief said that the alliance with AIADMK would continue for the 2024 General elections just like in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and the 2021 Assembly elections. Punjab Assembly Elections 2022: No One Can Defeat Congress, Only Congress Can Defeat Itself, Says Navjot Singh Sidhu over Factionalism in State Unit.

Addressing a press conference here, Annamalai said that BJP does not have any problems with senior AIADMK leaders O. Panneerselvam and E.K. Palaniswami, adding added that BJP's national leaders have approved of the stand taken by the state unit of the party.

The BJP leader said that this decision would also help the AIADMK leadership to provide more seats to their party leaders.

The former IPS officer-turned-politician said that the AIADMK had provided it 10 per cent of the total seats, but the BJP wants more share of seats, as it is difficult to share seats in local body elections.

It may be noted that several senior leaders of the BJP were pressuring the state leadership to go solo in the urban local body elections.

In a brainstorming session held by the party leaders along with the state functionaries of the RSS, it was brought to the notice that in urban local body polls, the chances of winning rests more with the ruling party.

This has led the senior leaders of the party to try and field as many candidates as possible and to assess the grass-root strength of the party.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 31, 2022 05:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).