Speaking on the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)'s decision to break the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu, state BJP chief K Annamalai on Monday said that the national leadership of his party will respond to the development.
"The national leadership will give a timely response on the AIADMK decision," said Annamalai who attended a padayatra in Coimbatore North Assembly.
Another BJP leader CT Ravi said, "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."
Earlier, AIADMK formally announced its decision to exit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre. The AIADMK has unanimously passed a resolution to break all ties with the BJP and the NDA, effective immediately, said KP Munusamy, AIADMK Deputy Coordinator.
Munusamy cited ongoing issues with the state leadership of the BJP, particularly their continuous and unwarranted remarks directed at AIADMK's former leaders, their General Secretary EPS, and their party cadres over the past year as a primary reason for this decision.
"AIADMK unanimously passed a resolution in the meeting. AIADMK is breaking all ties with the BJP and NDA alliance from today. 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," said Munusamy.
Meanwhile, celebrations erupted outside AIADMK headquarters in Chennai after the party ended its alliance with the BJP.
In the wake of a recent controversy surrounding remarks made by Annamalai about late Dravidian stalwart CN Annadurai, a senior AIADMK leader, Jayakumar, called off the alliance between the two parties on September 18. Jayakumar stated that he was conveying the AIADMK's official stance on the issue.
To address the matter, a delegation from the AIADMK met with BJP president JP Nadda and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who is responsible for Tamil Nadu affairs. The AIADMK delegation sought the intervention of the BJP leadership to secure an apology from Annamalai for his remarks.
Big loss to BJP: Tejaswhi
"It is their matter. I won't be able to say much on this. DMK is very strong in Tamil Nadu. Congress and DMK alliance there is very strong. An NDA meeting was held a few days back but it yielded no results. There was no agenda...If you look at South India, then you would see that a major ally of NDA has quit the alliance. I think this will be a big loss to BJP. Shiv Sena, JD(U) and Akali Dal have already quit the alliance. It clearly shows that NDA is meaningless now. Only one dictator is sitting there and two people are running the country," said Bihar Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
The BJP and the AIADMK alliance secured only the Theni constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election. Several other parties including the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), Puthiya Tamilagam (PT), Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) and Puthiya Neethi Katchi (PNK) were the other constituents of the alliance.
The BJP and the AIADMK till now fought three Lok Sabha elections together in 1998, 2004 and 2019. The alliance swept the 1998 Lok Sabha Election in the state under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jayalalithaa. However, the alliance couldn't last long and Vajpayee's government lost power by just 1 vote in 1999 after Jayalalithaa's withdrawal of support. The parties again forged the alliance in 2004 but both of them failed to open their account.
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