Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 11: After a break of about two years, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Friday returned to the NDA fold forming an alliance with the BJP to contest the coming elections to the state Assembly together after the saffron party shunted out its state unit president K Annamalai, a major irritant for the Dravidian party, and appointed in his place Nainar Nagendran the party’s state unit president.
Announcing the development, the union home minister Amit Shah told the media persons in Chennai that the BJP and the AIDMK would contest the Assembly elections, due early next year, under the leadership of the AIADMK chief and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS).
“We will make a common minimum programme if needed,” Mr Shah, flanked by EPS, told reporters. Mr Shah reminded of a huge win in the Lok Sabha in 1998 when the BJP and AIADMK formed an alliance helmed by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The BJP-AIADMK alliance at one point won 30 of 39 Lok Sabha seats, he said.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will comfortably win in Tamil Nadu, Mr Shah said. On how the alliance would work out, the Home Minister said the BJP will not interfere in AIADMK’s internal matters. To a question about the finer details of the alliance, Mr Shah in a lighter vein requested people to allow the BJP to handle some matters on its own and not overburden the AIADMK. “Let us also do some work. You don’t worry about everything. Leave some worries for us to handle too,” the Home Minister said.
The announcement about the alliance was made soon after Mr Nagendran, the BJP’s legislature party leader and a former minister in the AIADMK ministry, took over as the new president of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit, replacing K Annamalai.
Nagendran, the MLA from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, filed his nomination for the BJP’s top organisational post in the state on Friday. A choice of the party high command, Mr Nagendran, considered to be close to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the sole nominee paving his way to become the party’s 13th state president.
Mr Shah confirmed on X that Mr Nagendran’s was the sole nomination for the state party president’s post. He also hailed Annamalai’s contribution to the party during his tenure as Tamil Nadu BJP president and hinted that the young leader could be taken to the centre to take advantage of his organisational skills,
BJP’s outgoing state chief Annamalai had frequently targeted senior AIADMK leaders, including MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, prompting AIADMK come out of the NDA alliance after fighting 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections together. However, the BJP’s decision to place the Tirunelveli MLA as its new state president could now help mend ties with the AIADMK, especially with just a year to go for the crucial elections. Mr Shah, however, claimed that Mr Annamalai’s ouster as the state unit president was not linked to the party forming the alliance with the AIADMK.
Nagendran, a three-time MLA representing Tirunelveli, faced defeats in his attempts to enter the Lok Sabha race in both 2019 and 2024. He began his political journey with the AIADMK, winning the Tirunelveli Assembly seat in 2001 and again in 2011. During the 2001–2006 period, he held a ministerial post in the government led by Chief Ministers J Jayalalithaa and O Panneerselvam. In 2017, he parted ways with the AIADMK and joined the BJP, where he gradually rose to the ranks of the party’s state vice-president and now the president.
He also shares close ties with BJP’s top leaders, including Mr Modi. Recently, Nagendran was seen on stage alongside PM Modi during an event in Rameswaram, where the Prime Minister inaugurated the Pamban Bridge.
The BJP and AIADMK had contested together in the 2021 Tamil Nadu elections when Palaniswami was the Chief Minister. However, the NDA lost the elections to DMK and its alliance partners, only managing to win 75 seats out of 234 constituencies. The AIADMK won 66 seats, while the BJP managed only four seats.
On the other hand, the DMK won 133 seats and the Congress, the ruling party’s alliance partner, won 18 seats. In 2023, BJP Tamil Nadu chief Annamalai’s strong remarks against AIADMK leaders J Jayalalithaa and CN Annadurai, along with his anti-Dravidian stance, caused friction that culminated in a split between the BJP and AIADMK.
The two parties went solo in the Lok Sabha and failed to win a single seat in Tamil Nadu. However, the BJP’s vote share in the state increased significantly under Annamalai’s leadership. In the run-up to next year’s Assembly elections, Annamalai has seemingly softened his stance on an alliance with a Dravidian party.
During the press conference, Amit Shah said the BJP had no conditions or demands from the AIADMK, adding that the alliance was a win-win situation for both parties to form the government and expose the DMK government’s “corruption.”
“They (DMK and opposition parties) are raising the issues of delimitation and NEET to distract the people… We will sit with AIADMK (since their stand on these issues is different from the BJP-led NDA) and discuss with them on these issues and if needed, there will be a common minimum programme,” he added.
Shah assured that the NDA would end the DMK’s “corrupt rule” in Tamil Nadu and accused the ruling party of scams worth over Rs 39,000 crore. He said the people will vote on issues of rampant corruption, law and order, and atrocities on Dalits and women by the DMK government.
