With less than a year to go for the Tamil Nadu elections, Saturday underlined again that the BJP and the AIADMK aren't speaking in one voice yet.
The latest discordant note emerged after Union Home Minister Amit Shah told The New Indian Express in an exclusive interview that the alliance led by the AIADMK will sweep to power in TN and the BJP will join the government.
Amit Shah had been asked, "Will you join the government (if the alliance won in TN)?"
The Home Minister's answer was a clear and categorical "Yes."
But, on Saturday morning, when the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palaniswami, was told this, he reacted as if stung by a bee.
When asked about Shah's remarks, Palaniswami told reporters in Puducherry, "Have I not said it clearly? AIADMK will win with a majority and form the government." He went on to throw in a "Thank you!" to dismiss further questions. What particularly stood out was the refusal to address the prospect of the BJP being part of a future government directly.
It must be remembered that AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Satyan had told The New Indian Express earlier this July that "Our leader has sent a clear message that we will form our own government and that no one can swallow our party", after a party meeting at Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi district.
These developments come after Amit Shah, in the presence of Palaniswami, formally announced the revival of the alliance with AIADMK at a press conference in Chennai on April 11.
A strained relationship
The BJP-AIADMK relationship had been strained when the former IPS officer K Annamalai was the state president of the BJP. By mid-2023, the AIADMK adopted a resolution against Annamalai for his criticism of party icon J Jayalalithaa by referring to her conviction in a disproportionate assets case.
Annamalai had poked fun at the AIADMK several times.
Once, to the chagrin of AIADMK leaders, he even went on to claim that Jayalalithaa was a "far superior Hindutva leader", insisting the BJP was trying to fill the void her demise had created in Tamil Nadu's politics.
It was the replacement of Annamalai with 64-year-old Nainar Nagendran as state president of the BJP that paved the way for the revival of AIADMK's ties with the BJP.
Later, Nainar Nagendran, while responding to a query by mediapersons on whether Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) raids at the premises of Palaniswami's relatives were a ploy by the BJP to pressurise the AIADMK general secretary, claimed the alliance had been made possible only following discussions with Edappadi Palaniswami.
A brewing tension and alliance's 'Operation Vijay' in TN
Meanwhile, all is not well within the AIADMK as senior leader KA Sengottaiyan has openly shown his displeasure against Palaniswamy's leadership. He stayed away from a felicitation function organised by farmers to thank Palaniswami for the Athikadavu-Avinashi project because the pictures of AIADMK's founder MG Ramachandran and former CM J Jayalalithaa were missing from the invitation card and banners.
Amit Shah had earlier told TNIE that BJP will make efforts to bring in actor-turned-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), Ramadoss-led Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and other smaller parties on to a single platform. EPS too had made it clear that he was open to allying with any party to oust the DMK.
But Vijay has already made it clear that his party will not have any truck with the "ideological enemy", the BJP, or the "political enemy", the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
As for the PMK, the senior Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss are at daggers drawn over who will have the upper hand in party affairs ahead of the assembly elections. The senior Ramadoss, founder of the party, seems to be keen on forging an alliance with the DMK while his son is showing an inclination towards joining hands with the BJP.