TIRUCHY: Having snapped ties with the BJP, the AIADMK is trying hard to shed any baggage from its previous alliance and win the votes of religious minorities in Tiruchy parliamentary constituency in the upcoming general election.
The AIADMK’s Tiruchy South district secretary P Kumar blamed the party’s defeat in Tiruverumbur constituency in the last Assembly elections to their inability to secure the votes of religious minorities. Mentioning the Assembly constituency alone being a base of over 65,000 such votes, he said, “All voted for the DMK-led alliance considering our ties with the BJP."
"We had lost the chance to win in all nine constituencies in the district due to the alliance with the BJP. All our cadre who had worked hard suffered. We will now regain the minorities’ support through continuous campaigning," he added.
On support for the AIADMK, a pastor of a small church in Tiruverumbur said, "We are under pressure due to the BJP's policies over restricting external funding to non-governmental organisations. When we sought the AIADMK's support at that time, none addressed our issues.
We don't have any leaders from our community occupying top posts either. We have to wait and watch whether the AIADMK will change its position [on an alliance] later." Meanwhile, TAS Khalil Rahman, district secretary, MGR Mandram, remarked how party sympathizers even objected to voting for the AIADMK when it was in alliance with the BJP.
“They were hurt by the BJP’s implementation of CAA and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC)," he added. The SDPI's support for the AIAMDK now, however, has changed the latter’s image, he added. "We have been given the task of approaching our community's local leaders to explain the current scenario.
I have given them hope that EPS (Edappadi K Palaniswami) won't join hands again with the BJP," he further said. Commenting that some were still not aware of the AIADMK having severed ties with the BJP, Sheik Muhammed, a party ward secretary, said,
“Alongside this we face challenges convincing people due to the campaign taken by the DMK claiming that the AIADMK continues to have a backdoor alliance with the BJP and that it will support Modi after the elections.” Meanwhile, a leader at a mosque in Tiruchy said,
"Both the Dravidian parties have not allocated seats to Muslim candidates, apart from the ones given to alliance partners. Both of them are under pressure due to the majoritarianism politics that is taking over the nation. However, it will take time for us to believe the AIAMDK's stand and we have to give them time to see if it will change in the 2026 Assembly elections."
