JOIN USDhinakaran says AMMK will contest 2024 polls in alliance
Making a rare public appearance since his defeat in the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly election, AIADMK rebel T T V Dhinakaran presided over the general council meeting of his party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) on Monday. In the meeting, he asserted that his party—which he formed in March 2018 after being expelled from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)—would ally with one of the national parties for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In his speech, Dhinakaran tore into the current AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, calling him a “traitor,” and vowed to make sure that Amma’s (J Jayalalithaa’s) government was brought back to Tamil Nadu.
The AMMK general secretary also spoke about the efforts by “friends” in New Delhi—read Bharatiya Janata Party leaders (BJP)—to bring his party and the AIADMK together for the 2021 state polls, and how Palaniswami scuttled them, which “paved the way” for DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) returning to power after a decade.
Dhinakaran, the nephew of V K Sasikala, was expelled from the AIADMK by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam in 2017. The two leaders also ensured that 18 MLAs who owed allegiance to Dhinakaran were disqualified.
After his efforts to “unite” the party failed, Dhinakaran launched AMMK and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 polls alone. AMMK lost both elections, and Dhinakaran went into political hibernation, which formally ended on Monday.
“AMMK is a regional party. We cannot have a Prime Ministerial candidate. There are only two national parties in the country, BJP and the (Indian National) Congress. Though the Left is a national party, they don’t have a presence across the country. We will align with one of the national parties. If Congress is not in the DMK alliance, it is also an option for us,” Dhinakaran said.
Dhinakaran’s open interest to align with the BJP is a major shift in his stance towards the saffron party. Saying the national ruling party had “corrected course” vis-à-vis Tamil Nadu after the 2019 Lok Sabha election defeat, Dhinakaran explained the change in his stance towards an alliance with the BJP.
He also launched an attack on the DMK saying it was interested only in furthering the “businesses” of the family and was “least bothered” about people’s problems.
Dhinakaran’s speech triggered speculation about the BJP’s efforts to form a rainbow coalition for the 2024 general elections.