Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M Karunanidhi today (Jan 20, 2004) ruled out rejoining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the Lok Sabha polls.

Responding to a question about BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan's reported remark in Mumbai yesterday that DMK's exit from NDA was "temporary", Karunanidhi told reporters in Chennai that there was no question of his party returning to the NDA-fold in the post-poll scenario.

When his attention was drawn to BJP national secretary L Ganesan's recent remarks that the coming Lok Sabha polls would be a fight between Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi, the DMK chief said it was never the practice of the DMK to project an individual in the elections.

"We ask for votes only for our policies and programmes. We will do the same even now," he added.