Chennai: A year before Tamil Nadu goes to Assembly polls, Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday successfully stitched an alliance between the AIADMK and BJP in Chennai. “The NDA will fight the elections under the leadership of (AIADMK general secretary) Edappadi Palaniswami. We will form a coalition government,” Mr Shah said at a press conference in the presence of the AIADMK leader.
To facilitate the alliance, the BJP brought in a change in its state unit leadership with the popular but aggressive K Annamalai being replaced by a more amiable Nainar Nagendran, who is a former AIADMK Minister. The transition in the state leadership was smooth with Nagendran being the lone applicant for the post of president, with his application being proposed by Annamalai among others.
Asked if the AIADMK placed any demands or conditions for the revival of ties, Shah denied it and said the alliance is mutually beneficial for the BJP and AIADMK.
The AIADMK had walked out of the NDA in September 2023 complaining against Annamalai for attacking its icons Annadurai and Jayalalithaa. The leadership change in the BJP appear to have assuaged the leaders of the AIADMK, who may find it easy to negotiate seat sharing with the new president Nagendran, who had quit the AIADMK in 2017 and joined the national party.
Shah told journalists, the ruling DMK was seeking to divert the attention of the people by raking up issues like Sanatana Dharam, three language policy and delimitation. However, the NDA will go to the polls by placing before the people the issue of the DMK’s “massive corruption, law and order situation, and women safety”. He listed out a series of alleged corruption in various departments that had taken place in the DMK regime.
Questioned about the future role for Annamalai, who was seated next to Shah, the Home Minister, said, “You leave out party’s affairs to us.” Shah also said the BJP does not interfere with the internal affairs of the AIADMK while responding to a query if the party would seek to bring together the various factions of the regional party. Palaniswami did not speak at the press conference. Later in the day, Shah headed to Palaniswami’s house where the two leaders were expected to dine.
