The AIADMK’s organisation secretary and former Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar on September 18 announced that the BJP was no longer an ally of his party.
“Only at the time of [Lok Sabha] election, it [the matter of alliance] will be decided,” Mr Jayakumar told reporters, after attending a function in Royapuram in Chennai
The AIADMK’s announcement came against the backdrop of the spat going on between the party’s functionaries - Mr Jayakumar himself, former minister C Ve Shanmugam and AIADMK Madurai urban district secretary Sellur K. Raju and BJP State president K. Annamalai - over, what the Dravidian major considered, “derogatory remarks” of the BJP leader on former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai.
On Thursday last, the AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami met Home Minister Amit Shah, the event of which was termed by Mr Jayakumar subsequently as routine.
Recalling that how BJP State president K. Annamalai’s remarks against former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa a few months ago had attracted ire of the AIADMK that had later adopted a resolution condemning him, Mr Jayakumar said that despite his party even representing several times to the BJP’s national leadership about the State president of the national party, there had been no change. Besides, Mr Annamalai had made remarks about the Dravida Kazhagam founder “Periyar” E.V. Ramasamy and the AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. “How would self-respecting workers of my party accept when my party’s icons are being repeatedly criticised?” Mr Jayakumar wondered.
Pointing out that the BJP’s State president’s conduct would only create discord between workers of the AIADMK and those of the national party, the AIADMK’s office bearer added that there was “no necessity” for his party to “carry them [BJP].”
In February 2022, the BJP contested on its own for the urban local body polls even though it said then that the AIADMK was still part of the NDA at the national level and the two parties will be in alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Two months ago, Mr Palaniswami seconded a resolution that the NDA would face the parliamentary election under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
