Dhinakaran’s AMMK joins BJP alliance in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu on Monday received a major boost with Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) led by T T V Dhinakaran formally joining the alliance being stitched by the saffron party for the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

Dhinakaran, an AIADMK rebel and nephew of J Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala, declared in Thanjavur that the AMMK has offered its “unconditional support” to the BJP to ensure that Tamil Nadu also does its bit in electing Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for a third consecutive term.

From being one of the vociferous critics of the BJP after it ensured that he was booted out of the AIADMK in 2017 to allying with the saffron party, life has come a full circle for Dhinakaran, who was ousted as deputy general secretary of the Dravidian party.

This also paves the way for another expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam to join the BJP alliance which is also likely to include Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an influential party in north Tamil Nadu, with a committed vote bank of around 6 per cent. If the alliance with PMK materializes, AIADMK will be left with no major ally this election, with the principal Opposition party burning the midnight oil to stitch a strong coalition against DMK.

Dhinakaran’s entry will help the alliance in Central and Southern Tamil Nadu where Mukulathors, the prime support base of AMMK, live as he still commands respect among them. In 2019 elections, AMMK scored 5 per cent votes with its candidates polling over 1 lakh votes in at least five Lok Sabha segments, but the party couldn’t pull off a good show in 2021 assembly polls when its vote share plunged to 2.5 per cent.

“The BJP has understood that we have the support of cadres. We have been in talks with them for the past six months in a democratic manner. I declare today that we have sealed an alliance with the BJP. I told (Union Minister G) Kishan Reddy and state BJP chief (K) Annamalai that AMMK offers unconditional support to the BJP,” Dhinakaran said in Thanjavur.

Dhinakaran added that he has not made any specific demand with respect to the number of seats with the BJP. “They have also not insisted that we should contest in a particular symbol,” he said, responding to reports that the BJP wants to contest alliance partners in its Lotus symbol.

The inclusion of AMMK and OPS into the BJP-led alliance is aimed at bring at least a chunk of Mukulathors, a traditional vote bank of the AIADMK, to vote for the combine. Mukulathors have been upset with the AIADMK and its general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for “systemically” expelling leaders of their community such as Dhinakaran, OPS, and Sasikala, from the AIADMK.

Dhinakaran also justified the alliance with the BJP saying that the saffron party might have not understood his “importance or significance” in 2017 but they have realised now that the cadre are with him.