BJP Claiming To Be Third Force In Tamil Nadu With 10% Score: Stalin

After urban local body polls in February, the BJP claimed that it has emerged as the third-largest party in Tamil Nadu after the DMK and the AIADMK.

With the BJP claiming to have emerged as the "third force" in its next frontier Tamil Nadu, the state's chief minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin has said it is like a boy scoring 90 points in an examination, the second student getting 50 and the third managing just a 10-point score.

He also said it was wrong to assume that the BJP won massively in the recently held assembly elections in five states as its tally declined in Uttar Pradesh and its 10 ministers, including one deputy chief minister, lost there, while several key leaders in Goa and the chief minister in Uttarakhand also had to suffer defeat.

"Taking into account the real field conditions of the five state election results, I'll say it is negative for the BJP," Stalin told PTI in an interview.

"In UP, they have got fewer seats than last time. The defeat of 10 ministers, including the deputy chief minister, is an expression of popular discontent. The BJP chief minister has been defeated in Uttarakhand and their key leaders lost in Goa too. The party has won only two seats in the Punjab assembly," said the DMK stalwart, who was on a three-day visit to the national capital.