BJP reiterates its demand for power sharing with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Touching a raw nerve in their ties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is insisting on a power-sharing arrangement with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu as part of the alliance deal for the 2026 Assembly polls, a demand that has made the Dravidian party uncomfortable. 

The demand for the BJP to be included in the government if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were to win the April-May polls was reiterated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to leaders of the AIADMK twice in the past three days, including with former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. 

Shah has been quite vocal that the NDA will form a coalition government in Tamil Nadu ever since the BJP and AIADMK revived their alliance in April 2025, an assertion that is being publicly contradicted by EPS who insists that his party will form a government on its own. 

‘Demand for a share in power’

“The demand for a share in power and BJP ministers in the government has been made by Shah to AIADMK leaders during his discussions on Monday and Wednesday. From day one, the BJP has been clear that the NDA should form a government, not AIADMK alone. We have made the demand, and we are waiting for a response,” a source aware of the developments told DH.

Shah unequivocally demanded that the AIADMK should share power with BJP during his meeting with EPS’ emissary S P Velumani in Tiruchirapalli on Sunday and Monday. It is to be noted that Palaniswami did not meet Shah when he was in Tamil Nadu but travelled all the way to New Delhi on Wednesday only to meet him.

The source added that Shah seems to be upset with the AIADMK leadership and pointed to the Home Minister's Sunday speech in Pudukkottai where he did not take the name of the Chief Ministerial candidate (Palaniswami).

During the meeting with EPS on Wednesday night, Shah is believed to have sought a “greater share of Assembly seats” for the BJP by flaunting the party’s “impressive” 11 per cent vote share secured in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it led an alliance of its own. 

‘We need more seats’

“We will allot seats to people like T T V Dhinakaran and OPS with whom we are still in talks. We can’t settle for the 20 seats that we contested in 2021 when our vote share was less than 5 per cent. 2024 vote share should be the baseline for seat allocation and by that logic, we need over 40 seats for us,” another source said. Last time, the source pointed out that the AIADMK allotted 20 seats based on the BJP's last polled voting percentage.

The source added that the AIADMK is insistent that it will contest in at least 170 seats so that the party can aim to win required seats to form a majority government. “It is not possible to accommodate about half a dozen parties with the remaining 64 seats if the AIADMK takes 170 seats. The AIADMK has to compromise on the number of seats for the sake of the alliance which is being stitched together to take on the DMK,” the source said.

AIADMK believes agreeing to share power and announcing it before the elections would certainly give ammunition to the DMK which is already going to the town saying the BJP will rule the state through AIADMK if the NDA were to win the elections.

“This will be like falling into a trap. The DMK will take advantage of the situation and project the AIADMK as weak. We are trying to resist the demand, but the BJP is insisting on it. Coalition government has never been experimented in Tamil Nadu, and we don’t know whether people will even agree,” a third source said.

The sources said Shah told AIADMK leaders that the NDA has to come out with a strong narrative against the DMK especially on corruption by talking out the allegations against sitting ministers. 

Why do Dravidian parties oppose power sharing?

The BJP’s demand for a power share originally made in April 2025 has created ripples in the state’s political landscape with the Congress, a key and long-standing ally of the DMK, also wanting to join the government after elections. 

Both Dravidian majors, DMK and AIADMK, who have alternated power in Tamil Nadu since 1967, have averse to forming coalition governments in the state despite having contested almost every Assembly election in recent memory by forming alliances, except in 2016, when J Jayalalithaa contested alone. 

DMK and AIADMK have always contested enough seats, aiming for at least a simple majority. However, alliances were strictly electoral. At the core of their opposition to coalition governments is the fear of losing their image of invincibility and erosion of their core vote bank. 

For the record, EPS asserted that he had no intention to take back expelled leaders V K Sasikala and O Panneerselvam into the party. However, he was non-committal when he was asked whether Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) led by another rebel T T V Dhinakaran would be part of the NDA for the 2026 Assembly polls. 

The BJP believes TTV and OPS are imperative to put up a strong fight against the DMK as they hold considerable influence among Mukulathors, a dominant community spread across Central and Southern Tamil Nadu.