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Annamalai hits back at AIADMK on tie-up row
AIADMK and BJP disagree on coalition details; Annamalai insists on forming a government, while EPS claims AIADMK will lead independently.
With allies AIADMK and the BJP having contradictory views on a coalition government in the state, even as they agree on an alliance, the latter’s former state president K Annamalai said that that if the Dravidian party has a problem with it, they should speak to Union home minister Amit Shah directly. “Not once, not twice but our home minister has said thrice, clearly, that we will form a coalition government,” he told reporters in Chennai on Thursday. “If AIADMK has a problem with it, they should speak to him directly and resolve it.”
While Shah has previously said that the NDA led by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu will form a coalition government, AIADMK general secretary and leader of opposition, Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) said on Wednesday that Shah only meant that the alliance will win to form the government and this cannot be understood as power sharing. AIADMK will form a government independently with a majority, EPS added. Though EPS clarified that there was no rift with the BJP on the issue, he added that he would be the chief ministerial candidate, and that as the dominant party in the alliance, the AIADMK would call the shots.
State level BJP leaders have so far been non-committal, saying that Shah and EPS will work out the terms of the alliance, but Annamalai, who was likely replaced as state chief because of his poor equation with EPS, said he would go by Shah’s statements. “ Now, some people will try to spread rumours that I’m trying to break the alliance. But, I cannot take a different stand from what my leaders have expressed,” he added. To be sure, under his watch, Annamalai made it clear that the road to the BJP’s growth in the state was independence, not an alliance.
The AIADMK and BJP came together for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but the AIADMK walked out of the NDA in 2023 accusing then BJP state chief Annamalai of insulting its leaders. After a bitter separation the two parties came together on April 11, when Shah announced in Chennai that they will fight the 2026 elections together and form a coalition government and subsequently repeated it in interviews to Tamil dailies.
The two parties fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections separately which the ruling DMK -led INDIA bloc swept in Tamil Nadu winning all 39 parliamentary seats. The AIADMK registered a 20.4% vote share in one of its worst performances while BJP registered one of its best performances with a 11.4% vote share
Annamalai added that other NDA allies such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) also want a coalition government.
Both the Dravidian majors, the DMK and the AIADMK, have historically resisted coalition governments in Tamil Nadu, even though they have been part of coalition governments at the national level. After the 2006 assembly elections, when no party had an absolute majority, then DMK chief M Karunanidhi formed a minority government with outside support from parties such as the Congress and the Left.
