Strained ties reach a breaking point: AIADMK-BJP alliance in tatters

With the AIADMK flexing its muscles against its saffron ally, the NDA in Tamil Nadu appears to be crumbling. The Dravidian major has passed a resolution condemning BJP state president K Annamalai for his veiled criticism of late AIADMK supremo and former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa being convicted for corruption. Fissures within the uneasy alliance have now come to the fore ahead of the impending LS poll. It will require the BJP's central leadership to bail out the alliance, writes ETV Bharat's MC Rajan.

Chennai: A couple of days after the visit of Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah's visit during which he heaped praise on state unit president K Annamalai, the saffron party's dominant ally, AIADMK, has passed a resolution condemning the latter as 'immature, irresponsible and lacking political experience'. Training its guns on Annamalai, the former IPS officer, the AIADMK has made it clear that he remains an impediment to the continuation of the alliance.

“We strongly condemn BJP state president Annamalai for his planned interview made with an ulterior motive. Lacking political experience in the public domain and maturity, he had made irresponsible comments about 'Puratchi Thalaivi Amma',” read the resolution passed at the meeting of District Secretaries, held earlier in the day in Chennai. It also charged him with denigrating Jayalalithaa and tarnishing her image with slander, which was unacceptable. While singling out Annamalai for its attack, the resolution was soft on Prime Minister Modi and the BJP's national leadership.

What triggered the sudden spurt in the verbal duel was Annamalai's interview with an English daily wherein he had implicitly said that the AIADMK's late iconic leader Jayalalithaa was convicted in a court of law for corruption. He was obviously referring to the disproportionate assets case in which Jayalalithaa and her confidante VK Sasikala and two others were convicted by a special court in Bengaluru and sentenced to four years in 2014. Before being released on bail, she was incarcerated in prison.

This was enough to incense the AIADMK leadership, which was waiting for an opportunity to strike back as the BJP under Annamalai was bent upon dethroning it from the opposition space and cutting down to size Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) in his own home turf, the Kongu belt (western Tamil Nadu) to facilitate the rise of the former IPS officer. Annamalai's earlier assertion, while releasing the DMK files on April 14, to bring out the corruption files on AIADMK as well, had only worsened the ties between the two parties. And he reiterated the same in the interview also, which was a bitter pill for the AIADMK to swallow.

“It was Jayalalithaa, who was instrumental in BJP tasting power at the Centre. By accommodating the BJP in the alliance under the AIADMK in 1998, she ensured that it secured its footprint. Similarly, it was EPS who helped the BJP win four Assembly seats in the last Assembly poll, after a long gap of 20 years,” the resolution said underlining the importance of the leadership of EPS. Indirectly, it was hinting that without the AIADMK, the national party could become electorally irrelevant.

While the ties are strained and appear to have reached a breaking point, analysts observe that despite the heartburn, the two parties will stay together until the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which is very crucial for the BJP. “It is far-fetched to think that the national leadership of the BJP will allow the AIADMK to go it alone. More than the AIADMK, the BJP needs the former in its quest to break the jinx in Tamil Nadu. Even though the present squabble will affect the alliance at the grassroots level, the BJP top brass will not rein in Annamalai or contain his style of functioning. If at all the BJP dumps the AIADMK, it might do that only after the LS poll, depending on the result,” explains senior journalist Babu Jayakumar.

Not only the AIADMK, led by EPS, and the OPS faction as well as TTV Dhinakaran have come out against Annamalai and demanded that the BJP leadership contain him. Annamalai's indirect dig at Jayalalithaa had turned all three factions of the AIADMK against the BJP.

Giving the current war of words a local dimension, right-wing analyst Raveendran Duraisamy reasons that the one-upmanship for leadership in the Kongu belt is the reason for the bitter rivalry between EPS and Annamalai. “Both are hailing from the dominant OBC Goundar community in western Tamil Nadu. And it is natural. Furthermore, Team Annamalai is correct in its view that in the alliance with the AIADMK, there is no vote transfer benefitting the BJP. The beneficiary is AIADMK, hence, the saffron party targeting EPS,” he says.

But, EPS going soft on Modi and keeping the door open also indicates that he is not averse to the BJP top brass playing the arbiter. Throwing the ball at the BJP high command, EPS has put the saffron party in a fix to rescue the alliance.