Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Monday officially announced that it has ended its alliance with the BJP and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The move came after the party held a meeting of all its MPs, MLAs and district secretaries, led by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami in Chennai. Deputy general secretary and MLA K. P. Munusamy made the announcement at the party headquarters: “AIADMK has unanimously passed a resolution in the meeting to break all its ties with the BJP and NDA alliance from today.”
He added: “The state leadership of the BJP for the last one year has, in a planned fashion, intentionally been making remarks against AIADMK, our former leaders, who we consider like our gods — Anna, Jayalalithaa, our general secretary EPS and our cadres.”
The rift in the alliance was sparked after a remark made by BJP state president Annamalai earlier this month on C.N. Annadurai, founder of ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), who is also seen as the ideological leader for the AIADMK.
After the announcement of the split, the AIADMK headquarters at Chennai’s Avvai Shanmugam Salai erupted with celebration. Cadres were seen distributing sweets, bursting crackers, waving the party flag, flashing the victory sign, and raising slogans in support of the AIADMK leadership’s decision.
Calling it a decision respecting the opinions and wishes of 2 crore cadres of the AIADMK, deputy general secretary Munusamy said that in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the AIADMK, under the leadership of former CM Palaniswami, will form alliance with parties in the state and contest the election.
The AIADMK had joined hands with the BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 state assembly polls.
The split announcement comes days after an AIADMK delegation made a low-key visit to Delhi to meet BJP party chief J. P. Nadda and Union Minister Piyush Goyal. The delegation’s trip came just four days after party spokesperson and former minister D Jayakumar on 18 September called off ties with BJP and said that a decision on alliance will be taken closer to the polls.
In what appeared to be an attempt to keep the Delhi visit discreet, two of the delegates had gone to the national capital from Kerala and another from Bengaluru. In Delhi too, the delegation chose to stay at a private hotel and not the Tamil Nadu House.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had Sunday said that the AIADMK-BJP rift was a “drama to dupe the people of the state”.
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‘BJP state unit didn’t follow coalition dharma’
“There have been constant jibes that have been made against the AIADMK and the BJP’s state unit has not been following the coalition dharma. The party has to ensure that our cadres are happy. When there are remarks made against our leaders it becomes a matter of our self-respect,” an AIADMK leader who was part of the delegation that met Nadda told ThePrint.
The leader added that the AIADMK had asked the BJP central leadership to reign in Annamalai last time, but this time they asked for more serious action.
Annamalai had, during an 11 September protest over the ‘Sanatana Dharma’ row, narrated an alleged incident that took place during a 10-day Tamil conclave event in 1956, in which “Anna (referring to C.N. Annadurai) got an opportunity to speak and he said the girl (there) sang very well, if it were fools, they would say the girl sang well because she drank the milk of wisdom”.
He further said that Muthuramalinga Thevar (a politician and freedom fighter), “warned that there would be abhishek with blood of those who disparage the goddess”.
Several AIADMK leaders had taken offence to the remark and on 14 September, the party general secretary had met Amit Shah in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the BJP state unit has backed its leadership. “Annamalai has only spoken facts and has not said anything wrong,” Amar Prasad Reddy, BJP spokesperson and Tamil Nadu BJP sports wing president told ThePrint.
He added that for the 2024 polls, the face of the NDA is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and breaking the alliance was a loss for the AIADMK.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)