Amit Shah (right) with Edappadi K Palaniswami during a press conference in Chennai recently.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections next year, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have revived their alliance.
However while Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the BJP would form a coalition government, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has clarified that it is merely an ‘electoral alliance’.
Speaking to reporters, Palaniswami said, He (Shah) never said it will be a coalition government. You people have misunderstood what he said and made it a huge issue. He never said (BJP) will seek a share in the government.”
The AIADMK and BJP had an alliance in the 2019 general and 2021 Assembly elections, and went their separate ways before the 2024 general election.
1998 alliance
Following the snap elections in 1998, after Congress withdrew support to the IK Gujaral government, BJP and AIADMK formed an alliance and bagged 30 out of the 39 seats of Tamil Nadu.
Soon J Jayalalithaa began to pressure Vajpayee to withdraw the income tax related cases against her and dismiss the DMK government. When the central government did not respond favourably, Jayalalithaa pulled out of the NDA and the Vajpayee government lost the trust vote.
In the 1999 general elections, the AIADMK and Congress formed an alliance while BJP joined hand with M Karunanidhi's DMK. Vajpayee returned to power in 1999 this time with DMK as its ally.
2004 alliance
DMK prior to the 2004 general elections, cut ties with the NDA alliance. This prompted BJP to forge an alliance with AIADMK. When the alliance failed to win any seat in Tamil Nadu, BJP ended its alliance with the national party.
2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly election alliance
AIADMK, after the death of Jayalalithaa in 2016, began to fix their ties with the BJP and formed an alliance during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 Assembly elections.
While the NDA bagged a second term in 2019, the alliance failed to leave a mark in Tamil Nadu. BJP did not win any seats and AIADMK won a single seat.
During the 2021 Assembly polls, AIADMK along with their ally BJP won 75 seats. AIADMK got 66 seats and BJP won 4.
The AIADMK-led NDA polled 39.71 per cent, of this BJP having contested 20 seats however the party polled only 2.62 per cent
Parting ways in 2023
In 2023, Annamalai, BJP's state unit chief , taking an aggressive stance against the party, criticized key AIADMK leaders, including the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. The party upset by this passed a resolution against him, resulting in their withdrawal from, the alliance with the BJP.
Both parties contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections alone and neither parties won a seat from the state.
The BJP contested 23 seats and managed to get 11.24 per cent of the votes, an improvement from 2019 when they got only 3.62 per cent.