Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai (L); AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Credit: PTI Photos
Chennai: Days after the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) swept the Lok Sabha polls winning all 39 seats, knives are out in the AIADMK and BJP with leaders from both parties blaming the latter’s state unit chief K Annamalai for breaking the alliance, which they said, could have swept Tamil Nadu.
Former ministers S P Velumani and R B Udhayakumar, in whose parliamentary constituencies the BJP pushed AIADMK nominees to the third slot, said an alliance between the two parties could have ensured at least 30 seats. They laid the blame on Annamalai for breaking the alliance between the two parties.
Fishing in the troubled waters was former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who lost from Chennai (South) seat in her second innings in politics, who too appeared to blame Annamalai for both the BJP and AIADMK facing the rout in Tamil Nadu. “We are not people who lose elections. We would have certainly won if the strategy was right. Forming an alliance and contesting elections is a strategy. We always believed in that strategy, but Annamalai didn't,” Soundararajan said.
Soundararajan also agreed with Velumani and Udhayakumar on their assessment that an alliance between the two parties could have given the DMK alliance a run for its money. However, the statements made by the two AIADMK leaders is a volte-face from their earlier stand that the BJP was a “baggage” and that there was no need for them to carry the saffron party on their shoulders.
Velumani, the Coimbatore strongman who has suffered an embarrassment after his party nominee Singai G Ramachandran emerging the distant third in the prestigious seat, also claimed it was Annamalai’s “attitude” and statements against party leaders that prompted the AIADMK to walk out of the NDA.
However, there seems to be different views within the AIADMK on its now broken alliance with the BJP. Former minister and organising secretary D Jayakumar dubbed Velumani’s statement as his “personal opinion” and that there was no “relook” into the alliance between the AIADMK and BJP.
Tamilisai Soundararajan openly blaming Annamalai in public was also not taken lightly by supporters of the former Karnataka-cadre IPS officer. S G Suryah, state BJP secretary, took to X to assert that the state chief was the “supreme decision maker” of the Tamil Nadu unit as per BJP Constitution.
“Anyone differing his views from seniors to juniors, please share your grievances in the appropriate political forum. He (Annamalai) gave us respect and dignity in the last three years and groomed us as leaders. We don’t want to lose any of it - neither the 11per cent votes in 19 seats or the 20 per cent contested vote share across Tamil Nadu,” Suryah added.
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