Months before Lok Sabha polls, AIADMK ends alliance with BJP; passes resolution to quit NDA

With barely a few months to go for the general elections in the country, the AIADMK on Monday announced it was walking out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and added it would lead a separate front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The formal break-up was announced by AIADMK Deputy General Secretary KP Munusamy after a resolution was passed unanimously at a meeting of MPs, MLAs and district heads at the party’s headquarters in Chennai. After the news emerged, party workers celebrated by setting off firecrackers. At a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday - a last-ditch effort to revive strained ties - the south Indian party remained firm on its demand - that either K Annamalai, the BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief, apologise for remarks on late former Chief Minister CN Annadurai, or he be replaced with a “non-controversial leader”. Former CM Annadurai was the mentor of AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran. A senior AIADMK leader at that meeting told news agency PTI that discussions were “smooth and cordial”, but remarks by the BJP’s M Chakravarthy told a different story. The resolution, without naming anyone, said the BJP’s state leadership has been of late defaming Dravidian stalwart, the late CN Annadurai and late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, besides criticising its policies. It was obvious the Dravidian party was miffed with BJP state president K Annamalai, whose comments about Annadurai had created a rift between the two erstwhile allies.  Top party office-bearers, district secretaries and MLAs and MPs took part in the AIADMK meet, helmed by party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami at the AIADMK headquarters. The AIADMK-BJP alliance was on the brink last week after the former party’s D Jayakumar told reporters, “We will decide on the alliance before the election. Annamalai is unfit to be BJP’s state president. He speaks ill of late leaders only to project himself.” The BJP leader had previously also been critical of the late former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who remains an iconic, almost revered, figure within the AIADMK. At the time, the southern party had demanded the state BJP chief be taken to task. Annamalai frequently stirs up controversy with both his party’s ally (the only one in the state) and their joint rival, the DMK.