A crucial meeting of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) office-bearers is being held on Monday, September 25 at the party headquarters in Chennai. It appears that the meeting will deliberate on the future of the ties with the BJP, currently quite fraught.
The meeting is being attended by party MPs and MLAs, district secretaries, and other senior functionaries. AIADMK sources have told IANS that a large part of the party office-bearers, including district secretaries, are of the opinion that an alliance with the BJP would do more harm to the AIADMK than any good.
A senior leader reportedly said, “The AIADMK is primarily a Dravidian party and in many issues we felt cornered due to our alliance with the BJP. Also there is a strong Muslim vote bank in Tamil Nadu and an alliance with the BJP will not fetch a single vote from them. Coupled with this, we have to face the arrogance of BJP state president, K Annamalai as well. The party leaders and cadres are fed up with these developments and in today’s meeting many will express their dislike. But let Annan [EPS] take a final decision on the matter.”
On September 18, the AIADMK announced that the party was officially ending its alliance with the BJP. The sudden development that shocked the state and national-level BJP leadership came after a comment made by BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai.
While speaking at a protest rally on September 11 over the Sanatana Dharma issue, he referred to an incident that reportedly took place in 1956 at the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. Annamalai claimed that former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravidian icon CN Annadurai was threatened by Muthuramalinga Thevar for speaking ill of Goddess Umaiyaval at a temple event. He also claimed that Annadurai went into hiding in Madurai and that “Annadurai and PT Rajan apologised and ran away.”