BJP, AIADMK did not cut ties for the first time

PM Modi with AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. The AIADMK did not rejoin the National Democratic Alliance when the BJP returned to power at the Centre in 2014.

Ahead of the 2024 polls, the AIADMK broke its alliance with the BJP on September 25. Led by former Tamil Nadu chief minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, the party said it will go solo for the upcoming general elections.

AIADMK  to go solo in 2024 polls

The decision was taken during an AIADMK meeting chaired by General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami with key office bearers. The party’s high-level meeting adopted a unanimous resolution criticising the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit for deliberately attacking AIADMK icons and ideology. The party said the BJP had been making "unnecessary remarks about AIADMK's former leaders".

"Eight months are left and what will happen in these months, we can't say anything today. To make the party strong is the duty of every worker. Under the leadership of K Annamalai a great work of strengthening the party is being done,” said BJP leader CT Ravi.

The AIADMK cadre celebrated the end of the alliance by bursting crackers outside its office.

However, this is not the first time that the alliance between AIADMK and BJP faced trouble.

Long history

Both the parties had formed an alliance at the Centre between 1998 and 1999 and then again for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. However, the AIADMK did not rejoin the National Democratic Alliance when the BJP returned to power at the Centre in 2014. After the death of its chief J Jayalalithaa in December 2016, the AIADMK faced chaos. The AIADMK began extending policy-based support to the BJP in Parliament but did not join the NDA. According to Scroll, this move was done citing late Jayalalithaa’s cordial relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two parties formalised their alliance in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 state polls. However, their alliance did not yield the expected results. The alliance, also comprising some smaller parties, won just one of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, respectively.

In the 2021 assembly polls, the AIADMK won just 66 seats, out of the state’s 234 seats, and the BJP clinched four. While the AIADMK failed to win a single seat in the Puducherry assembly polls, the BJP formed the government there with the All India Namathu Rajiyam Congress.

Parties react

"Many regional parties have severed ties with the BJP. Now the AIADMK has snapped the ties, which indicates that the BJP's days are numbered," said Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur.

The AIADMK was the biggest partner in the NDA in south India and snapping of ties with the BJP will dent the prospects (of the BJP). At present, the NDA has become meaningless," says Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.