Only BJP national leadership can decide on political alliance in TN: Palaniswami

Chennai: AIADMK General Secretary K. Palaniswami on Monday said that only the BJP’s national leadership can decide on the alliance in the state for the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Interacting with media persons at Salem, the AIADMK leader’s comment came following state BJP leader K. Annamalai’s “interpretation” of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement as it had “some nuances”. Even as Union Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting and BJP’s former state chief, L. Murugan has said that the alliance with the AIADMK would continue, Annamalai said that as of now the alliance was intact but elections for 2024 Lok Sabha are far off. He had also said that those who knew Hindi well can “interpret” Shah’s speech.

Palaniswami’s statement was a clear message to the state BJP leadership that he would be directly dealing with their national leadership and not with them. The central BJP leadership wants a few seats from Tamil Nadu in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and does want the AIADMK as its alliance partner.

It is also clear that without an alliance with the AIADMK, the BJP will not get any seat in Tamil Nadu and the central leadership of the party cannot afford this.

Palaniswami, when asked on BJP leader Nainar Nagendran’s statement that he was invited to rejoin AIADMK by him, confirmed it, adding: “Not only Nainar Nagendran but all leaders who had quit the AIADMK party should rejoin it.”