AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday stepped in to douse the fire stoked by a senior party leader who blamed the alliance with BJP for the defeat in the April 6 elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
As former Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam’s comments made at a party meeting in Vanur in Villupuram district on Tuesday night stoked a row, BJP leaders joined the issue and asked the AIADMK leader to look within before blaming them.
Two leaders – Khushbu Sundar and K T Raghavan – went a step further suggesting that the BJP lost because of its alliance with AIADMK.
As leaders of two parties crossed swords on Twitter, Panneerselvam released a terse statement on the micro-blogging site making it clear that there was no strain in the alliance.
“All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has full faith on Bharatiya Janata Party and the Hon. Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji. Considering the interests of the nation and also the welfare of Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK -BJP alliance will continue and there is no second opinion on this,” Panneerselvam said.
Hours later, OPS and EPS released a joint statement asserting that the alliance stitched for the 2021 assembly election is intact and continues.
On Tuesday night, Shanmugam, who lost the assembly elections from the Villupuram constituency, said the party’s alliance with BJP led to its defeat as minorities distance themselves from the AIADMK. “People wanted (AIADMK) government to continue. But everything went wrong due to a variety of factors like alliance. Minorities did not vote for us because of the alliance with BJP,” Shanmugam said.
Citing the example of Villupuram constituency, Shanmugam said DMK won by 14,800 votes because of the overwhelming support of minorities. “Minorities have 20,000 votes in this constituencies, and we know how DMK won,” he said.
This is the first time that a leader from the AIADMK has gone public on an issue that was being whispered within the party. Many leaders believe the AIADMK could have performed better without alliance with the BJP.
Soon after Shanmugam’s comments, Raghavan, the state BJP general secretary, wrote on Twitter: “That it (the defeat) is because of you (AIADMK), exists in our minds too.”
The AIADMK-BJP alliance was defeated by the DMK-led combine that romped home.
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