In a recent interview with a Tamil news channel, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was asked about a reconciliation with the AIADMK and he replied, “All doors are open.” Responding to this statement on Wednesday, senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar told media that there was absolutely no possibility of a patch up between them.
He added, “At the meeting of the AIADMK’s district secretaries and the party’s senior office-bearers a resolution was adopted that there would be no alliance with the BJP for now and forever.”
He also said that the AIADMK cadres and senior members had always been against an alliance with the saffron party and now, there is no way they would go back on the resolution taken. As for AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, he told the media on Wednesday that he had not seen or heard about Amit Shah’s statement.
The BJP and the AIADMK had always had a tumultuous relationship. They formed an alliance for the 1998 Lok Sabha elections but that lasted just a year. Cut to 2004 when they again formed an alliance for the general elections but BJP didn’t win any seats.
Jayalalithaa had nurtured the AIADMK into a strong party in Tamil Nadu and had always been against an alliance with the BJP. In fact, in 2014 when there was a direct battle with the BJP in by-polls to local bodies in Tamil Nadu, she told the people of Tamil Nadu not to vote for the BJP. She said, “The BJP practices double standards in its policies at the national and state level.”
It was after her demise that the relationship between the two parties thawed and an alliance was formed once again in 2019 before it broke down in September last year.