CHENNAI: AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday night, fueling speculation about a possible revival of the AIADMK-BJP alliance ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
The AIADMK, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party, broke ties with the BJP in September 2023 before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, citing differences with the party’s state leadership.
AIADMK sources said Palaniswami discussed several issues with Shah, including Tamil Nadu’s two-language policy, Delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies, and conveyed his party’s stance.
Sources added that the AIADMK chief submitted a memorandum outlining the party’s position on the state’s law and order situation.
When asked about this, a senior functionary of the AIADMK told TNIE that “The DMK has been trying to gain political mileage out of the issue and to cover up its own shortcomings during the past four years of rule. Since the AIADMK is also wedded to the two-language policy as well as the view that Tamil Nadu should not be affected by the delimitation of LS constituencies, the party too felt the need to raise its voice.”
Palaniswami left for New Delhi this morning. Later, AIADMK deputy general secretary KP Munusamy and another senior leader SP Velumani reached the national capital on Tuesday evening. Senior functionaries including M Thambidurai and CV Shanmugam were already camping in New Delhi.
Sources said since Palaniswami is scheduled to return to Chennai by 11.30 am flight on Wednesday.
However, when reporters asked about the purpose of his visit to Delhi, Palaniswami said he wanted to visit the newly opened office for the AIADMK in the national capital. After his visit to the AIADMK office, Palaniswami dismissed reporters who approached him saying that he would see them on Wednesday.
Palaniswami who affirmed numerous times that the AIADMK would not align with the BJP for 2026 Assembly elections, has changed track recently.
“DMK is our only political adversary and we aim to unseat the DMK from power in the 2026 Assembly elections.”
To strengthen his case, Palaniswami has been saying that ideology and electoral alliances are different things and forging an electoral alliance is done at the time of elections to defeat the political adversary without getting the votes split and to capture the power.
The coming together of top leaders of the BJP’s state unit and the AIADMK’s senior leaders at the wedding of the son of former minister SP Velumani triggered speculations about the revival of the AIADMK-BJP alliance. Now, Palaniswami is camping in New Delhi along with senior leaders of the party.
