In a major jolt to the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK on Monday announced to part ways with the BJP alliance.
The party unanimously passed a resolution in this regard. “The state leadership of the BJP has been continuously making unnecessary remarks about our former leaders, our general secretary EPS and our cadres for the past one year,” K P Munusamy, AIADMK deputy coordinator said announcing the decision.
AIADMK is not part of the opposition bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. It said on Monday that it will lead a separate front in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The major decision comes after months of speculations over the strained relationships between the AIADMK and the BJP. Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai repeatedly commented against AIADMK leaders and that did not earn him any wrath for the BJP was seemingly okay with Annamalai’a attack.
AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar called Annamalai a destructive pest for his comments on Tamil Nadu’s first chief minister CN Annadurai and this back and forth between the two allies clouded their future.
The decision was welcomed by the AIADMK party workers as they burst crackers in Chennai. Annamalai has not yet reacted to the
This break-up was developing in the background while K Palaniswami met Amit Shah on September 14. Next, an AIADMK delegation made a trip to Delhi where they believed to have deliberated the alliance issue with BJP chief JP Nadda and BJP leader Piyush Goyal. According to reports, these trips did not come up with any positive results as the BJP national leadership did not intervene in the state-level feud.
AIADMK Lok Sabha seats in 2019
In 2019, AIADMK went to the Lok Sabha election in an alliance with the BJP and won only one seat. Raveendranath Kumar, son of O Penneerselvam, was AIADMK’s only winning candidate. AIADMK’s huge decline in the vote share was attributed to its alliance with the BJP as in 2014, in contrast, when AIADMK contested alone, it won 37 out of 38 Lok Sabha seats.