Ganesan predicts hung assembly in Tamil Nadu

Former Tamil Nadu BJP unit President L Ganesan predicted a hung assembly in the April 13 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections and said it was difficult to foresee which way AIADMK and Congress would go in such a scenario.
"We won't know where will Congress go and where AIADMK will go. That is why, I presume, Jayalalithaa is not so vituperative in her attack against Congress". Ganesan, whose party has a poll alliance with Janata Party, said he was confident the BJP would win in at least 15 seats. Charging that both Congress and DMK were playing "money politics", he said, "while the DMK is a retailer, the Congress is a whole saler". Commenting on the freebies being promised to voters by parties in their poll manifestos, he said such announcements alone would not help garner votes. Neither Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar nor Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who have both been reelected in their states, were dependent of freebies, he reasoned. "You only make people lose self-respect by such schemes. However, giving laptops to students is a good scheme", he said. Welcoming the Election Commission's agressive stand on checking vehicles to curb the flow of illegal cash in the run up to the elections, Ganesan said the EC was doing the "right thing". Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi "was scared" because "he feels the ruling party will be defeated if did not pay money to voters", he said.