Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) renewed their alliance after a gap of 19 months to contest the next year’s crucial assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
The announcement made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, or EPS, came on a day, when the BJP chose Nainar Nagendran to replace firebrand former IPS officer K. Annamalai as its new Tamil Nadu chief.
“AIADMK had no conditions and demands (and) we will not interfere in the internal matters of the AIADMK… this alliance is going to be beneficial for both NDA and AIADMK,” Shah said to a media query on whether its ally had put forward any condition to join the alliance
He asserted that the alliance will contest the Tamil Nadu polls under the leadership of EPS.
“Since 1998, the AIADMK and the BJP have been in alliance with each other. It is a natural alliance. This alliance has been contested even during former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s period. Once this alliance has won 30 out of 39 constituencies in the state,” Shah told reporters in Chennai.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is under the leadership of EPS at the state-level and it will be under Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national-level, Shah added.
The announcement comes weeks after EPS had met Shah at his residence in Delhi. While the AIADMK then maintained that the meeting had nothing to do with the alliance, Shah on 25 March confirmed to a news channel that the BJP was in talks with the AIADMK.
The ties had gone for a toss in September 2023, just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Back then, the Tamil Nadu-based party severed its ties with the BJP after party leaders took offence to certain remarks made by Annamalai about former chief minister C.N. Annadurai.
On Friday, when questioned if the change in the leadership in Tamil Nadu’s BJP was to have an alliance with the AIADMK, Shah sought to downplay any such talks. “Until now he (Annamalai) is the BJP Tamil Nadu president and that’s why he is sitting next to me.”
When questioned if he would stress for unification of former AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam, V.K. Sasikala and T.T.V Dhinakaran, Shah clarified that BJP would not interfere in the internal party affairs of AIADMK.
Political analysts said that the bargaining power of the AIADMK has improved over the period of time. “Amit Shah comes all the way from Delhi to Chennai to make the leadership change and announce the alliance with AIADMK. It shows that the EPS has evolved as a leader and negotiated things with the BJP’s national leadership,” Priyan, a Chennai-based political analyst, said.
Political analyst Arunkumar said that the alliance between the two parties would consolidate the anti-DMK votes. “AIADMK vote bank is not based on any ideological principles. It is purely an anti-DMK vote bank. The only motive of those voting the AIADMK was to defeat the DMK. So, now with the BJP also in their alliance, they will be able to consolidate the anti-DMK votes as well as the anti-incumbency,” he explained.
Also Read: Why EPS had a change of heart & greenlit AIADMK-BJP alliance talks ahead of Tamil Nadu polls
History of AIADMK’s alliance
Ever since AIADMK was founded in 1972, the Dravidian party had allied itself with the Congress party. In the 1980 general elections, it joined hands with Indira Congress and had a Minister of State (MoS) between 1980 and 1982.
In 1984, the AIADMK continued its alliance with Congress’s Rajiv Gandhi and won the election. It was again offered one AIADMK got one MoS slot in the Union Cabinet.
Five years on, after the death of its founder M. G. Ramachandran, or MGR, the AIADMK first aligned with the BJP and won 11 of the 39 seats in Tami Nadu.
Subsequently, in 1991, the AIADMK returned to the Congress fold and contested the Lok Sabha election, winning 30 of the 30 seats. This time too, the AIADMK was given a single MoS seat in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet.
In 1996, AIADMK contested alone, but later supported the United Front from outside. It then first entered the NDA in 1998, and won 18 of the 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu. AIADMK’s Kumaramangalam was given a cabinet berth. However, she soon withdrew her support in 1999, leading to fresh elections.
In 1999, the AIADMK won 10 Lok Sabha seats, but its rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was in an alliance with the BJP. Since 2004, the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa kept an equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP. The trend continued till Jayalalithaa’s death in 1996.
The AIADMK won only one seat in the 2019 general elections when it joined hands with the BJP. In September 2023, the AIADMK broke ties with the BJP and contested the general elections next year on its own, but both the parties drew a blank in the southern state.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Annamalai confirms he will not run for TN BJP chief amid speculation of tie-up with AIADMK for 2026
