In a strategic move, the Bharatiya Janata Party has stitched an alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK, once a ruling party in Tamil Nadu and now the main Opposition.
For the BJP, the alliance is a much-needed vehicle to hitch a pillion ride to power. In the 2021 state Assembly elections, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) decisively emerged as a clear winner, polling over 37 per cent votes and winning 133 seats. The AIADMK won 66 seats with over 33 per cent votes. The BJP, which was part of the AIADMK–led coalition, contested 20 seats and won four with 2.62 per cent votes.
In September 2023, the AIADMK accused Tamil Nadu BJP leadership of using derogatory language for its leaders and snapped the alliance. The BJP, on the other hand, had found a strong leader in former IPS officer K Annamalai. He galvanised the party at the grassroots level, formed a party team at the booth level, and decided to take on the DMK in a straight contest, marginalising the AIADMK. But this proved disastrous for both parties.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the DMK emerged stronger, winning 22 seats with 27.2 per cent votes. The AIADMK polled 20.7 per cent votes and the BJP, 11.4 per cent votes, but neither won even a single seat. The BJP had contested 19 seats and lent its lotus symbol to four more candidates, while the AIADMK contested 34.
BJP’s metamorphosis
Besides Annamalai’s firebrand leadership, the BJP heavily depended on the charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi—in a state once led by larger-than-life icons such as J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. The BJP also strategised to hit the DMK with corruption charges, against the clean image of its own state and central leadership. The AIADMK, on the other hand, was faction–ridden and leaderless, and could not use DMK’s corruption as a campaign issue, as some of its leaders had migrated to the party.
To win substantial seats in the Lok Sabha and form a government in Tamil Nadu, the BJP needs a metamorphosis that would catapult it to power. Short of a miracle, the next best thing is effective and strategic political partnerships. The party has shrewdly formed such alliances in other states and is reaping the benefits. In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK was its only logical option.
For the AIADMK, the BJP’s overtures came as a lifeboat. The party’s fortunes nosedived after the death of its tallest leader, Jayalalithaa, who dominated state politics with elan. Strangely, both the DMK and the AIADMK faced the 2021 Assembly elections without their respective leaders, Karunanidhi and his bete noire Jayalalithaa. For the AIADMK, jettisoning the BJP proved to be a costly error of judgement, and the party failed to use anti-BJP cards as effectively as the DMK did.
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DMK courts Hindu votes
Ahead of the 2026 elections, the DMK is using a three-pronged strategy to secure its anti-BJP vote bank: playing the victim card on ED/CBI raids, portraying the BJP as a Hindi-belt party seeking to obliterate “Dravidian identity”, and calling the party’s Hindutva politics divisive and anti-secular. Yet, the DMK itself seems to be courting a section of the Hindu vote bank.
In an apparently smart move, probably at the prodding of his temple–frequenting wife, party president MK Stalin dismissed two DMK stalwarts, general secretary Duraimurugan and deputy general secretary K Ponmudy, from their posts. Ponmudy made patently obscene remarks about the religious marks Hindus wear on their foreheads. Duraimurugan’s remarks on the disabled are disparaging, to say the least.
Notwithstanding such public postures, Durga Stalin’s temple visits and social media visuals of her religiosity are seen as gimmicks rather than a change of heart, or a “ghar wapsi (homecoming)” of sorts.
Drawing parallels with his father and former chief minister Karunanidhi’s 1969 resolution on state autonomy, MK Stalin got a similar resolution passed in the Assembly. Reviving decades–old anti-Hindi agitation and going back to “greater autonomy” are the planks the DMK is planning to stand on in 2026. Of these, the anti-Hindi issue is not likely to appeal to the younger–generation voters. The greater autonomy demand, mirroring “Tani Tamil Nadu” (separate Tamil Nadu), was long given up by none other than the founder of the DMK and former chief minister CN Annadurai.
“When the country is in danger, for us to advocate separatism would be to give way to the foreigner,” he declared in 1962.
The political situation in Tamil Nadu is taking a strange turn. All parties are facing serious leadership challenges. For the DMK, the indecent haste in promoting Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi as deputy chief minister has not gone down well with a section of the party cadre and senior leaders. It has also been mocked as the party of the “rising son”. A faction-ridden AIADMK is struggling to fill its leadership vacuum after Jayalalithaa’s death. The less said, the better, about the Congress’ leadership bankruptcy.
In this context, the BJP has replaced its firebrand leader Annamalai with former AIADMK stalwart Nainar Nagenthran as party president. The aim is clear: strengthening the revived BJP-AIADMK coalition.
Seshadri Chari is the former editor of ‘Organiser’. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
Either the author is so removed from ground reality in TN, or harbours pre-conceived biases against DMK /anti-BJP forces. It is true that the ADMK has a leadership crisis, and their vote share will dwindle. Others like BJP / Vijay are trying to fill in the anti-DMK space that may get vacated by the ADMK. It is also true that BJP has been able to present itself as a natural alternative to some groups like ex-ADMK supporters in Western TN, the christian/nadar groups in Southern TN and brahmins across the state (decades back, the Cong used to occupy this space). This has pushed their vote share to the tweens. But to say that DMK has a leadership crisis is laughable. Infact they have gotten much stronger on ground than before – they have been able to do 3 things well: 1. successfully re-ignite the Dravidian identity and Tamil-pride narrative to consolidate the electorate, 2. ensure conversations & PR around local governance and pwd works, and 3. push industrial development and job creation aggressively. They will surely release their familiar 4th weapon – welfare doles – in the coming year. Its not a simple arithmatic. Much of the ADMK vote share will go to the DMK (bulk of the TN electorate has never shied away from swinging between them).
The AIADMK is a lifeboat for the BJP in Tamil Nadu. But the BJP will always be adrift.