PMK-BJP alliance sealed; tie-up will 'herald change' in TN, says Annamalai

Chennai: Paatali Makkal Katchi, an influential political party in northern Tamil Nadu with considerable influence among dominant Vanniyars, was on Tuesday allotted 10 Lok Sabha seats by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the April 19 general elections.

State BJP chief K Annamalai and Union Minister of State L Murugan drove to the residence of PMK founder S Ramadoss in Thailapuram, 130 km from here, on Tuesday morning to formalise the electoral pact. After the signing the agreement, Anbumani Ramadoss said the BJP-PMK alliance will “usher in change” in Tamil Nadu, whose people, he claimed, were “fed up” with 60 years of Dravidian rule.

“People of Tamil Nadu are eagerly waiting for a change. In fact, I can see that the people have hatred for those who have ruled them for 60 years,” Anbumani said, without taking the names of DMK and AIADMK, with whom the PMK had allied multiple times in the past.

Under the agreement arrived at between the two parties, the PMK will contest 10 Lok Sabha seats, which will be identified in the next couple of days. Sources told DH that the constituencies to be contested by the PMK will be spread across north Tamil Nadu, where the party wields considerable influence among Vanniyars. PMK is also likely to be allotted one seat each in central, western, and southern regions of the state.

Anbumani, who is the president of PMK, said the party was part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Delhi since 2014 and will now contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in an alliance with the BJP in Tamil Nadu. “We decided to join NDA keeping in mind national interests. We are confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will steer the NDA to hattrick win,” the former Union Health Minister in UPA-I government said.

Annamalai said the political scenario in Tamil Nadu has undergone a “change” since Monday night after the PMK’s decision to join the NDA. “There is yearning for a change among the people of Tamil Nadu,” he added.

With alliance firmed up, Ramadoss and his son Anbumani will travel to Salem later Tuesday to participate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in the western town.

PMK’s decision to join the NDA is a shot in the arm for the BJP’s efforts to cobble up a formidable coalition against the ruling DMK and AIADMK. The BJP decided to form a Third Front under its leadership after the AIADMK snapped ties with it and quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September 2023.

PMK is highly influential among Vanniyars, a dominant community which falls under the Most Back Community (MBC) category and commands a committed vote bank of about 6 per cent.

The alliance is likely to upset the calculations of the AIADMK which was hoping for a tie-up with the PMK. AIADMK, which has no major partners this election, had aligned with the PMK in 2019 and 2021 assembly elections, but the latter felt the former’s vote was not getting transferred in full to alliance partners.

PMK’s alliance with AIADMK was largely credited for the latter to save its then shaky government by winning 9 of the 22 assembly constituencies that went to by-polls in 2019.

PMK, which has always swung like a pendulum between the two Dravidian majors till 2011, tied up with BJP for the 2014 elections and won only in Dharmapuri and went solo in the 2016 assembly polls projecting Anbumani as its Chief Ministerial candidate.

The show flopped miserably with Anbumani himself losing Pennagaram seat by over 15,000 votes. Having nowhere to go, the party quickly grabbed the opportunity given by the AIADMK to join its alliance in February 2019.

The alliance with the PMK will help the BJP in northern Tamil Nadu as the saffron party hopes to increase its vote share this election. The party has also enlisted the support of expelled AIADMK leaders, O Panneerselvam and T T V Dhinakaran, to help woo Mukulathors, a dominant caste spread across Central and Southern TN.