Chennai: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election visit to Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK-BJP inclusive NDA in the State got a boost with the return of TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) to the alliance fold on Wednesday.
The NDA, which looked weak until recently, now comprises of the AIADMK, BJP, PMK faction led by Anbumani Ramadoss, Tamil Maanila Congress and AMMK in addition to some fringe players. Thus, it has acquired a form where it can give the ruling DMK a run for its money in this summer’s Assembly elections.
In all probability, this development leaves actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam almost friendless. With the Congress likely to stick on to the DMK alliance, the game may not change for the actor-politician, who was the first to openly declare that he would go in for a power-sharing arrangement with allies.
The DMK and AIADMK have so far maintained they will form a single-party Government, as has been the case in Tamil Nadu since Independence.
Dhinakaran had exited the NDA in September last year accusing the BJP state leadership of belittling him. He had also declared that he would never support AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for the post of Chief Minister. However, the BJP national leadership quietly worked behind the scenes and convinced him to return, while also ensuring the Palaniswami did not remain rigid and accepted the arrangement.
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The AMMK is essentially an offshoot of the AIADMK, which has been critical of Palaniswami since its formation in 2017. In the last Assembly elections, Palaniswami rejected the BJP’s advise to rope in Dhinakaran into the alliance and in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, the AIADMK had quit the NDA while the BJP faced the polls in the company of Dhinakaran and others.
On Wednesday, Dhinakaran met BJP Tamil Nadu in-charge and Union Minister Piyush Goyal and formally returned to the NDA. He took the philosophical line that “those who compromise do not get ruined” and declared his intention was to ensure that “Amma’s government (Jayalalithaa) is restored in Tamil Nadu.”
Welcoming Dhinakaran, Goyal said the NDA was committed to removing the “corrupt and incompetent” DMK government, which is “attacking the people of Tamil Nadu, Tamil culture, and Tamil pride.“
“We will work together as one family and defeat the anti-Bharat, anti-India DMK alliance. We will make sure to expose before the people, the corruption of Mr. Stalin, Mr. Udhayanidhi [Deputy Chief Minister], his brother-in-law Sabareesan, and the DMK,” he said.
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In a statement, Palaniswami welcomed Dhinakaran’s entry into the NDA indicating that he too had climbed down from his anti-Dhinakaran position.
All the alliance leaders will be in attendance at Maduranthagam near Chennai where Modi would address a public meeting on January 23 signalling the beginning of the election battle against the DMK.
