AIADMK pulls out of NDA ahead of LS polls
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has ended its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and exited the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK will now lead a state-level coalition, setting up a three-cornered fight in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections between the DMK, AIADMK, and BJP. Tensions in the alliance escalated after BJP leader K Annamalai made controversial remarks about Dravidian stalwart CN Annadurai and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday broke off its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and exited the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), days after state BJP chief K Annamalai made controversial remarks about Dravidian stalwart CN Annadurai and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The AIADMK announced it will lead a state-level coalition, which means the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu will be a three-cornered fight, between coalitions led by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — it is part of the Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA — the AIADMK, and the BJP.
Tensions in the four-year-old alliance were simmering for a few months, but flared up on September 11 when Annamalai, citing an anecdote from 1956, said that Annadurai apologised to Forward Bloc leader late U Muthuramalinga Thevar for allegedly insulting Hinduism. The AIADMK denied the claim as untrue.
On Monday evening, after a two-hour-long meeting of AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) with his party’s parliamentarians, legislators, district secretaries and top leadership in Chennai, the party decided to leave the NDA through a resolution passed unanimously.
Reading out from the resolution, AIADMK’s deputy general secretary KP Munuswamy said, “To respect the sentiments of our two-crore cadre, from today the AIADMK is leaving the BJP and the NDA.”
“The AIADMK will lead an alliance to face the 2024 elections with other allies. This is a unanimous decision. Even one person did not oppose passing this resolution,” he said.
“For the past one year, the BJP’s state unit has been insulting Annadurai, E Palaniswami and late J Jayalalithaa, criticised their ideology and also belittled their mega conference held in Madurai in August after courts upheld EPS’s elevation in the party and O Panneerselvam’s ouster,” Munuswamy added.
The AIADMK resolution did not name anyone individually but blamed the BJP’s state leadership in what was seen as a reference to Annamalai, who has courted one controversy after another since he took charge in 2021.
“The BJP state leadership also criticised the AIADMK conference which was held at Madurai on August 20. This hurts the AIADMK cadre,” Munuswamy said reading from the resolution.
The BJP did not appear particularly perturbed by the development. Its Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Nayaranan Thirupathy said: “The national leadership will address the matter.”
Another BJP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “In the state, obviously AIADMK is the larger party and EPS is the strongest leader of the party. This decision will only favour the DMK. We will have to see what the central leadership decides.”
Late last week, BJP chief JP Nadda met a delegation from the AIADMK, possibly a last-ditch attempt by the Dravidian party to get the national party to act against its state chief, but with the BJP backing Annamalai, Monday’s decision was a given.
To be sure, the decision may work to the BJP’s advantage eventually.
The DMK-led alliance won 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, and also comfortably won the state elections in 2021, but is widely expected to lose some ground to the AIADMK in 2024, according to analysts.
If anything, the BJP may have weighed down the AIADMK because its position on many issues runs counter to that of the Dravidian parties. The recent controversy over sanatana dharma – interpreted in the state as the rigidity of the caste system, but which the BJP has successfully translated as Hinduism itself in the Hindi belt – is one such example, they add.
And if the AIADMK wants to be part of any alliance after the elections, it will likely veer towards the NDA, the analysts said.
“EPS knows when to crawl and when to walk out. With today’s development he has shown his political smartness. The BJP was never going to replace Annamalai and in time they will know whether he has helped the party grow in Tamil Nadu. And by blaming only the BJP’s state leadership, he has kept a post-electoral scenario open,” said Ramu Manivannan, political observer and visiting professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, USA.
The break-up is unlikely to help the BJP’s prospects in the state, though — analysts see the party’s appeal in the state being restricted to the forward caste and Brahmin vote base that used to support the AIADMK on account of its late leader J Jayalalithaa.
The AIADMK came into the NDA fold ahead of the 2019 general elections and is one of the largest constituents in the coalition.
The immediate provocation was Annamalai’s September 11 comments. After his speech, AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar on September 15 said that Annamalai should express regret. On September 17, Annamalai rebutted that he is capable of “dirty politics”. In a veiled attack against EPS, Annamalai said that the statements from AIADMK are a reflection of their leader. The BJP leader, however clarified that he did not denigrate Annadurai but only cited historical facts. “They are jealous of the growth of the BJP here,” Annamalai has said. “Nobody has fallen on anyone’s feet in BJP to become a leader,” he added.
On September 18, Jayakumar said that their party cadre will not tolerate criticism against their leaders, accusing Annamalai of crossing the line of “alliance dharma”.
The NDA in Tamil Nadu also comprises smaller outfits such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazh (DMDK), Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) and Puthiya Needhi Katchi. The PMK chose to keep its options open. “All three of them will want us in their coalition. We don’t have to make any decision now when there are several months left for elections,” said a senior party leader.
Annamalai said that the party’s national leadership will soon speak on the development.
“The BJP national leadership will speak on AIADMK’s decision,” he told reporters in Coimbatore. “I will speak about it later.”