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AIADMK to lead alliance in 2024 polls: TN BJP chief
EPS had said in Krishnagiri district that the AIADMK will lead a mega alliance and win the next election. “We will win all 40 seats,” he had said referring to 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will lead the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Annamalai has said.
His remarks came a day after the AIADMK general secretary Edapaddi K Palaniswami announced that the party would form a mega alliance for the 2024 elections. The BJP and AIADMK are major partners in the present NDA in the state with some smaller parties.
“AIADMK is the major party in Tamil Nadu so there is no confusion about what Edappadi said. There will be a mega alliance led by the AIADMK,” Annamalai said at a public event on Monday.
On Sunday, EPS had said in Krishnagiri district that the AIADMK will lead a mega alliance and win the next election. “We will win all 40 seats,” he had said referring to 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry.
He also hit out at expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) saying there was no chance of bringing him back into the party.
On Tuesday, OPS hit out at EPS for his remarks.
“Amma (J Jayalalithaa) gave me the chief minister’s post. EPS is saying he made me deputy chief minister. Which post is bigger?” he told reporters.
“And who gave him the chief minister’s post? It was Chinamma (Sasikala)... And he has criticised Chinamma so much. People know who the traitor is. Because I’m a clean hand, Amma gave me the chief minister’s post in 2001,” he said.
He said that soon all problems will be solved and added that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to come to Tamil Nadu soon and he would wish to meet with him.
He got support from TTV Dinakaran, who heads the AIADMK’s breakaway faction, who alleged that there was no difference between EPS and chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin. “Both of them are autocratic,” Dhinakaran said.
“I’m saying again and again that if we are to defeat the DMK, all of Amma’s cadre, whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever mega alliance they are forming should unite. We have been running AMMK for five years so we will always extend an olive branch to an alliance that opposes the DMK,” Dinakaran said, with OPS on Tuesday backing the idea.
