Tamil Nadu BJP ally asks Hindus to unite ahead of state polls

Hindu Munnani
, a right-wing outfit aligned with the BJP, on Sunday urged voters to assert the power of the
Hindu vote bank
in the upcoming
Tamil Nadu assembly elections
, scheduled for April next year. Speaking at the Lord Murugan Devotees Conference, the group passed a resolution calling for Hindu unity and the protection of Hindu rights and temples.
Another resolution at the conference, which was attended by Andhra Pradesh deputy CM
Pawan Kalyan
and BJP office-bearers of Tamil Nadu, said the DMK government should "stop treating temples as revenue sources and use funds to benefit devotees".
Pawan Kalyan slams 'secularists'
Pawan Kalyan slammed 'secularists' and atheists for what he called selective outrage—targeting Hinduism while staying silent on other religions. Meanwhile, parties like the DMK, Congress, NTK, and MDMK criticised the BJP, accusing it of using the conference to exploit religion for political gain.
"Secularism has become a convenient word for a lot of people. Secularism means there should not be any discrimination in the name of any religion, except Hinduism, Hindu gods and Hindu culture. The so-called secularists do not have the guts to speak about the religion which came from Arabia," Pawan Kalyan said, adding that for atheists, "it has become a habit to denigrate our gods. This has to change. If this does not change, it would be difficult to sustain Hindu dharma".
Though BJP's ally AIADMK has chosen not to speak about the conference, four former ministers from the party - R B Udhayakumar, Sellur K Raju, Rajendhira Balaji and Kadambur Raju - participated in the event. Union minister L Murugan and senior BJP members H Raja, Tamilisai Soundararajan and Vanathi Srinivasan were also present.
Live Events
BJP-AIADMK to fight polls together:
Previously, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the BJP and the AIADMK will contest the next year's Tamil Nadu assembly polls together. The BJP will fight under the leadership of AIADMK chief Edappadi Palaniswami, Shah said.
"AIADMK and BJP leaders have decided that AIADMK, BJP and all the alliance parties will contest the upcoming vidhan sabha elections in Tamil Nadu together as the NDA," Shah said at a press conference in Chennai, in the presence of outgoing BJP TN chief K Annamalai and Palaniswami.
The BJP leader, however, clarified that no conditions have been set for the alliance between the two parties, while adding that the alliance would defeat the MK Stalin-led DMK and form the government with full majority.
Details like seat sharing and plan on ministry distribution within the alliance would be finalised later, he said.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

India Today

40 minutes ago

• India Today

Trinamool Congress's Alifa Ahmed wins Kailganj bypoll, defeats BJP's Ashish Ghosh

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Alifa Ahmed has won the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll in West Bengal's Nadia district by a massive margin of 50,049 votes, defeating her nearest BJP rival, Ashish Ghosh. The by-election was held following the death of her father and former MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Alifa secured 1,02,759 votes, while BJP's Ashish Ghosh received 52,710 votes. The Congress-Left-supported candidate, Kabil Uddin Shaikh, came third with 28,348 Alifa received around 9,000 votes less than her father's 1,11,696 votes in 2021, her winning margin increased. Nasiruddin had won by 46,987 votes in the last election, whereas Alifa surpassed that, seemingly due to a split in votes between BJP and Congress-Left candidates. Outside the counting centre, Alifa thanked voters for their support. She said, "This victory is because of people's love and faith in Mamata Banerjee's development politics."Responding to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's claim that Hindus didn't vote for TMC, Alifa said, 'I do not agree. We received significant leads from some Hindu-majority areas.'She added, 'We did not target votes from any particular community. We approached all voters. The results show people don't support communal division in Bengal.'advertisementWith PTI inputs.

Business Standard

an hour ago

• Business Standard

Assembly bypolls: BJP wins Gujarat, Congress bags Kerala, AAP takes Punjab

Counting is underway for the by-elections held on June 19 across five Assembly constituencies in Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal. The seats contested include Kadi and Visavadar in Gujarat, Nilambur in Kerala, Ludhiana West in Punjab, and Kaliganj in West Bengal. BJP and AAP split wins in Gujarat In Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) split the two contested seats. In Kadi (SC), BJP's Rajendrakumar Daneshwar Chavda won by a commanding margin of 39,452 votes, securing 99,742 votes against Congress candidate Rameshbhai Chavda's 60,290. The seat fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki in February. Visavadar saw a win for AAP's Italia Gopal, who defeated BJP's Kirit Patel by 17,554 votes. Gopal received 75,942 votes while Patel garnered 58,388. The seat became vacant after former AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the BJP. Congress retains Kerala's Nilambur In Kerala, Congress' Aryadan Shoukath secured a win in Nilambur, defeating CPI(M)'s M Swaraj by a margin of 11,077 votes. Shoukath garnered 77,737 votes while Swaraj received 66,660. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of PV Anvar, a Left-backed independent MLA who later joined the Trinamool Congress. Anvar had previously won the seat in 2021 by a narrow margin of 2,700 votes. AAP clinches Ludhiana West in Punjab In Punjab, AAP's Sanjeev Arora won the Ludhiana West bypoll, defeating Congress' Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 10,637 votes. Arora received 35,179 votes to Ashu's 24,542. The seat was vacated following the death of sitting AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi earlier this year. BJP's Jiwan Gupta secured third place with 20,323 votes, while Shiromani Akali Dal's Parupkar Singh Ghuman managed 8,203. Since its formation in 1977, Congress has won Ludhiana West six times, while the BJP has never claimed the seat. TMC ahead in Bengal's Kaliganj In West Bengal's Kaliganj, Alifa Ahmed of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leads by a margin of 51,334 votes after 19 of 23 rounds of counting. She has secured 91,480 votes so far, ahead of BJP's Ashish Ghosh with 40,146 votes and Congress' Kabil Uddin Shaikh with 26,220. The bypoll was called following the death of TMC MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed, Alifa Ahmed's father. With a Muslim electorate comprising around 54 per cent, Kaliganj is considered politically significant ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Mint

an hour ago

• Mint

Ludhiana West Assembly Bypoll Result: AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora wins

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sanjeev Arora on Monday won election from the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab. He defeated Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu by a margin of 10,637 votes. Advertisement Arora secured a total of 35,179 votes while Ashu got 24,542 votes, according to the Election Commission data. The AAP workers started celebrations over Arora's victory in a fierce electoral fight. From the beginning of counting, Arora took the lead. Though the AAP nominee won, Ashu led fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of counting during which, the AAP candidate's margin dropped. After the first three rounds of counting, Arora was leading with a margin of 3,060 votes, which dipped to 2,286 votes after the sixth round. However, Arora's margin again started rising from the seventh round onwards. There were total 14 candidates, including BJP's Jiwan Gupta and Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Parupkar Singh Ghuman, in the fray and the counting of votes for the June 19 bypoll began at 8 AM at a centre set up in Khalsa College for Women in Ludhiana. Advertisement BJP's Jiwan Gupta polled 20,323 votes while the Shiromani Akali Dal's nominee Parupkar Singh Ghuman got 8,203 votes. The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. A voter turnout of 51.33 per cent was recorded in the bypoll, a sharp drop from the 64% voting registered in the 2022 state polls. There were a total of 1.75 lakh eligible voters for the bypoll. The bypoll was seen as a litmus test for the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government and the ruling party's national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this seat. People rejected both BJP, Congress in bypolls: Kejriwal AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said people are fed up with the BJP in Gujarat and stressed that people had rejected both Congress and BJP in the bypolls. Advertisement AAP leader Gopal Italia won the Visavadar seat, while BJP's Rajendra Chavda bagged the Kadi seat on Monday, as counting for bypolls to the two constituencies in Gujarat concluded, officials said. Kejriwal said the results of Ludhiana West show that the people of Punjab are very happy with the work of the government and they have given more votes as compared to 2022. "The people of Gujarat are now fed up with BJP and they are seeing hope in Aam Aadmi Party," he said in a post on X in Hindi.