Tamil Nadu unit of National People's Party launched

COIMBATORE: Former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma-led National People’s Party plans to contest the 2016 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to reporters here on Sunday after the launch of the party’s state unit, NPP’s national secretary I B Pandey said, “While we are late in launching our camp in Tamil Nadu when compared to others, we feel this is the right time to do so.”
The party, which was launched with a cadre strength of 20,000, plans to increase the membership in the coming months.“The NPP is functioning with a cadre strength of nearly 50lakh across the country,” he said.
Asked about the party’s future plans, Pandey told TOI that the NPP would soon hold a meeting in Madurai to lay its plans for the elections. “Increasing the cadre strength will be the main agenda. This will help us know how many candidates we will field in the elections next year,” he said.
Asked if the party was concentrating on specific seats, he said the NPP had not yet zeroed in on any constituency.
He said the party would form an alliance with other parties ahead of the elections. He indicated that one of the probable allies would be the AIADMK. “We have had good relations with the AIADMK, and wish to continue it,” he said.
The party will face the elections with the agenda of protecting the state from all sides. According to Pandey, Tamil Nadu is facing problems from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. He said, “There is water problem with Karnataka and Kerala, wood smuggling issue with Andhra and fishermen issues with Sri Lanka. We want to protect the state from all these problems.”