CHENNAI: The AIADMK, which leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu, and the BJP began preliminary talks for the 2026 Assembly election, including plans for a joint campaign of leaders and assessment of the current political situation in the state, on Tuesday.
The talks held at a hotel between the AIADMK team led by general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and the BJP team led by Piyush Goyal, union minister and BJP’s poll in-charge for TN, lasted 90 minutes. Goyal met Palaniswami after consulting the office-bearers of the BJP high-level committee at the party headquarters in Chennai.
After the talks, rumours started doing the rounds about EPS’ purported nod for inclusion of former CM O Panneerselvam and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK in the larger NDA alliance as separate political entities and not under AIADMK. It was also speculated that AIADMK wanted to contest in 170 seats and allocate 23 seats each to BJP and PMK.
A key AIADMK functionary, however, said the party’s willingness to contest in at least 170 seats could be an intelligent guess considering that the total constituencies is only 234, but the number of seats to be apportioned to individual NDA allies was not discussed in the meeting. As per sources, BJP leaders seem to have expressed willingness to send double-digit number of members to the Assembly and they would soon come up with the list of constituencies they would like to contest.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Goyal exuded confidence that the NDA will have a “sweeping victory” in the 2026 poll. The union commerce minister added that the NDA partners would strive to meet the aspirations of the people, especially their demand for progress. “TN has suffered under the corrupt regime of the DMK. It is important for people of TN to get good governance, a government which is development-focused and provides for a better future for our Tamil brothers and sisters,” he said.
AIADMK chief EPS described the meeting as preliminary talks. “We shared the plans on how to work for the Assembly polls. Across TN, the people want to unseat the DMK. To achieve that, the AIADMK, BJP and other parties in the NDA will work together,” he added.
On the AIADMK side, apart from EPS, KP Munusamy, Dindigul Sreenivasan, SP Velumani, and P Thangamani took part in the meeting. BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who is the BJP co-in-charge for TN elections, and Union Minister L Murugan were present on behalf of the BJP.
In Coimbatore, speaking to reporters, Nagenthran denied any seat-sharing talks with AIADMK leaders or agreement regarding bringing back TTV Dhinakaran and Panneerselvam into the NDA fold. Meanwhile, as part of the preparatory works for elections, Palaniswami announced that he would be resuming his statewide tour from December 28 in Tiruporur in Chengalpattu. He has already completed 175 constituencies and is expected to complete 60 more constituencies by first week of January.
According to BJP sources, the meeting with the AIADMK leaders saw discussions on seat-sharing and possibility of expanding the NDA alliance by including more parties, particularly former CM O Panneerselvam and AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.
The BJP is likely to seek around 40 Assembly seats in TN, including five in Chennai ( T Nagar, Velachery, Alandur, Virugambakkam and Mylapore).
Similarly, the party will also contest more number of seats in Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari, where it has performed well in the last Lok Sabha elections, a senior BJP leader added. They also stressed that BJP’s TN office-bearers have conveyed that it would be better to accommodate TTV and OPS in the NDA bloc, as they now have the option of aligning with Vijay’s TVK.