In a statement on Wednesday, AIADMK General Secretary and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) announced that his party will not form an alliance with the BJP for the 2026 Assembly elections.
Speaking to the media in Coimbatore, EPS, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, said it was made amply clear during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and repeated in several media conferences.
"Our objective is to defeat the DMK. No alliance with the BJP at any cost," said Palaniswami, who reiterated that no more clarification was needed on the issue.
EPS also referred to an interaction with a journalist in Tiruchi on Sunday during which he was asked if the AIADMK would ally with the BJP.
He responded that AIADMK would consider alliances with "like-minded parties" to unseat the DMK, a statement some media house interpreted as a possible coalition with the BJP.
While the big guns in the ruling party BJP were busy unveiling the party's fresh state-level leadership, senior BJP leader and former Governor of Telangana Tamilisai Soundararajan floated the possibility of an "like-minded" alliance against the DMK in the elections.
Soundararajan had on Tuesday underlined the need for parties sharing the same objective to ignore the ideological differences with a view to defeat what she termed the "anti-people" DMK government of Chief Minister M K Stalin.
Tamilisai Soundararajan on the possibility of AIADMK-BJP alliance, said the call for such an alliance rests with the national leadership of BJP, which is in discussion with the state unit.
She, however, clarified that coalition politics would form the actual key to neutralising the DMK government she said, "It is not a must that only like-minded parties must form an alliance."
Soundararajan said opposition parties in the State of Tamil Nadu must concentrate their efforts to bring down the government led by the DMK even though they were of different political ideologies.
"Parties opposing the DMK should not be fragmented", she said, urging them to forge a strong alliance and prevent the 'Udhayasooriyan' [Rising Sun, DMK's symbol] from 'rising'. If we are firm and united, she said "we can stop them".
According to reports, the senior BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu are eager to have a revival of the alliance with the AIADMK, while Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai is on a study leave at Oxford University until November 28.
Read also| U-Turn: Delhi CM Atishi Requests L-G to Draft Policy for Rehiring Bus Marshals
