AIADMK should join NDA, says T T V Dhinakaran; his former party says no

Chennai: Is the BJP trying to reach out to its erstwhile ally AIADMK for an alliance in the 2026 assembly elections? It looks like it if one reads between the lines of statements by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai and the party’s alliance partner, AMMK’s T T V Dhinakaran.

While Annamalai said anything is possible in politics, Dhinakaran, nephew of V K Sasikala, was explicit in his views by saying that the AIADMK can defeat the DMK in 2026 only if it joins the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"BJP is very clear that the DMK should be uprooted from Tamil Nadu. Whether we achieve this by joining hands with other parties or by strengthening the NDA is the question that we should ask. Anything is possible, but our focus right now is to strengthen the BJP to usher in a change in 2026,” Annamalai said.

Annamalai has been opposed to an alliance with the AIADMK and he was instrumental in stitching up a rainbow coalition in 2024 under the BJP’s leadership. However, the realisation with the BJP ranks that a strong alliance is needed to defeat the formidable DMK-Congress combine seems to be behind the public statements by BJP leaders in favour of an alliance with the AIADMK.

However, the AIADMK reiterated on Wednesday that its general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has made it clear that the party won’t ally with the BJP for the 2026 polls. “Let Dhinakaran say whatever he wants. He is trying to be good to the BJP to save him from cases. As far as the AIADMK is concerned, we will form an alliance of our own and it won’t include BJP,” former minister and AIADMK organising secretary D Jayakumar said.

Dhinakaran on Tuesday said the AIADMK should realise that it should join the NDA if it has to win elections. “EPS is responsible for the defeat of the AIADMK. BJP leaders want the AIADMK to be strong and they don’t want to destabilise the Dravidian party. The AIADMK can win only if it joins the BJP alliance. I am ready to accept the AIADMK,” he said.

The speculation over reviving of ties between the BJP and AIADMK has been doing the rounds ever since the Lok Sabha elections saw the DMK alliance winning big.

A close look at the vote share of the AIADMK and BJP combines suggest that the alliance could have won at least a dozen seats by preventing a cake walk for the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) which won all 39 seats in the state in the high-stakes election.

While the AIADMK polled 20.46 per cent and its ally DMDK (2.5 per cent), the BJP alliance’s combined vote share is 18.28 per cent with the saffron party alone accounting for 11.24 per cent and the PMK 4.2 per cent. The vote share of the two alliances put together would have helped the AIADMK-BJP not just put up a spirited fight against the arithmetically strong DMK combine, but to have also made a dent in its numbers.

A case in point is Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency where state BJP chief K Annamalai polled over 4.5 lakh votes, and the AIADMK (2.36 lakh), while the DMK’s winning margin is 1.18 lakh. A victory for the alliance was also possible in Dharmapuri and Virudhunagar where the ruling alliance won by a slim margin.

Annamalai himself had admitted after the elections that the AIADMK-BJP alliance would have won about 30 seats if they were together but made it clear that his party garnering 11 per cent of votes is a “major development.”