CHENNAI: After days of sparring with the BJP Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai over his controversial remarks against, "Periyar" E V Ramasamy, C N Annadurai, and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, the AIADMK on Monday announced that its alliance is off as on today. “It will be decided closer to elections. May or mayn’t be. That’s the AIADMK’s stand,” said former AIADMK minister D Jayakumar and a key associate of EPS.
The announcement also came close on the heels of Annamalai hitting out at the AIADMK, saying the BJP was not anyone’s slave, and the BJP would capture power in 2026 assembly elections on its own. Charging Annamalai with being a coward, self-centered and violating the alliance dharma by making slanderous comments against the leaders of the ally, Jayakumar said a self-respectful AIADMK cadre would no longer tolerate it. “Annamalai is unfit to be a political leader, and state president of the BJP. A very small-minded person. Let him go alone in the polls. He would get less than NOTA votes. What moral right does he have to speak against Periyar, Annadurai, Amma (Jayalalithaa) and general secretary (EPS),” the AIADMK leader said, warning the BJP leader of serious repercussions in the coming days since the AIADMK cadres turned unrest over his derogatory remarks. Jayakumar said that Annadurai, a renowned scholar and a mass leader, was being worshipped as God by the cadres of AIADMK, the party bearing his name.
The AIADMK district secretaries led by Palaniswami passed a resolution in June, condemning Annamalai for his critical views on late leader J Jayalalithaa in an interview to TOI. The party had announced that it would even reconsider its alliance with the BJP if Annamalai continued his tirade.
