Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, both the AIADMK and the DMK have been expressing confidence at winning all 40 seats. Now, after the alliance break up with the BJP, the AIADMK has gone a step further and is fervently wooing the minority communities in the state.
Speaking at a rally in Sankarankovil late Wednesday night AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) said, “People of Tamil Nadu are our masters. We will safeguard the rights of the people of the state to get new schemes and funds for them from the central government and to safeguard the rights of the minorities in Tamil Nadu. This is the AIADMK’s poll slogan for the Lok Sabha elections.”
Numerous minority leaders, including Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi leader Thamimun Ansari, SDPI leader Nellai Mubarak and All India Majlis-e-Ithihathul Muslimin state president TS Vakil Ahmed, have held meetings with EPS over the last few weeks.
EPS also raised the Cauvery row and said at the rally, “National parties (Congress and BJP) are coming to power one after another. But they don’t bother about the people of Tamil Nadu and treat us like dust. The AIADMK is here to safeguard the interests of the state.”
Despite the fact that the AIADMK is now wooing the minority parties in Tamil Nadu, their alliance with the BJP the past few years had some of these parties aligning with the DMK. EPS raised the release of Muslim prisoners in the Assembly in a bid to get the Muslim vote on the AIADMK side.
The AIADMK has now chosen its 2024 electoral strategy as the rights of minorities but time will tell how far the party is successful in winning the Muslin and minority votes.
While EPS has been reiterating to the people that the AIADMK will not ally with the BJP in 2024 or 2026, the BJP has not issued any statement on this so far.