E-Paper
Parties weigh options in Tamil Nadu after AIADMK-BJP ties end
The split leading to a three cornered contest in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is clear
Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has left the other regional parties in the coalition in Tamil Nadu with a tough choice and those outside with a new opportunity.
The split leading to a three cornered contest in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is clear but which way will parties within and outside the NDA and those with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam swing?
After the AIADMK and BJP came together to fight the 2019 parliamentary elections, the DMK-led formidable coalition of the ‘Secular Progressive Front’ including the Congress, Left parties and the Dalits backed Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) have swept every election in Tamil Nadu.
They are now part of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA to face the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. With the AIADMK breaking ties with the BJP blaming its state unit on September 25, parties here are preparing for a seismic shift in Tamil Nadu’s politics not seen in the past five years.
Ousted AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam (OPS) and TTV Dhinakaran have said that the BJP has been in touch with them. The BJP wanted Dhinakaran even ahead of the 2021 elections given the backing he enjoys among the Mukkulathor community in southern Tamil Nadu.
Dhinakaran has made it clear that his five year-old party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) isn’t averse to an alliance with the national party. According to an AMMK party leader they have three options- go with the BJP, join the Congress if the DMK deserts them and lastly, fight it alone. “It will also depend on the Prime Ministerial candidate,” he added.
BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai left for Delhi on Sunday night to meet his leaders for the first time after AIADMK’s exit. “Without the BJP, the AIADMK will lose its two-leaves symbol and the party will shatter,” Dhinakaran said on Monday.
Politically orphaned OPS who joined hands with Dhinakaran has been ready to work for the NDA banner and recently said that the BJP has been speaking to him for the past three months. “Being in the NDA has been an option for us for a while though the BJP hasn’t decisively committed anything to us,” said a senior leader in the OPS camp. “They have been saying there will be a good decision soon. Cadre too wants us to be in the NDA but we are unsure if they will accept to contest in the lotus symbol.”
While the largest party in the NDA coalition, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has decided to wait since they believe that the split has made them appealing equally to the DMK, AIADMK and the BJP, the Puratchi Bharatham Party with one legislator has decided to stick with Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS).
This small party is the only one to so far endorse the AIADMK’s decision to contest the 2024 parliamentary polls with a new alliance. The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) is likely to veer towards the BJP while Puthiya Needhi Katchi and a caste-party Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) are yet to make a decision. Actor-turned politician Vijayakanth’s DMDK had quit the NDA ahead of the 2021 elections upset over the few seats they were given.
DMK allies such as the VCK whom Palaniswami has already begun to court since last week believe that the BJP is attempting a rapprochement with the AIADMK. “Both parties have gone silent after the announcement. We have to watch if these are pressure tactics for seat sharing or if they have genuinely broken it off,” said a senior leader in the DMK alliance.
The AIADMK’s assessment is that being with the BJP has cost them their traditional votebank of women, minorities and Dalits. “We have to regain ground here. We would have completely lost them had we been with the BJP for one more election,” a senior AIADMK leader said, requesting anonymity.
But, if the AIADMK were to face the 2024 elections alone as they have been saying and not coming together with the BJP even in a post-poll scenario, a senior leader in the DMK coalition said that the VCK and the Left parties would no longer view the AIADMK tinted by communal politics and they would have more options for the 2026 assembly election.
