Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) revived their alliance, the two parties appear to have differing views on the nature of their coalition. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the BJP would form a coalition government, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has clarified that it is merely an ‘electoral alliance’.
“We never spoke about forming a coalition government. You've misunderstood. It's purely an electoral alliance, not a coalition government. Amit Shah mentioned PM Narendra Modi for Delhi and my name for Tamil Nadu,” Palaniswami told the media.
EPS added that only elections would determine the strength of the alliance, and emphasised the need to avoid splitting in votes. “We made efforts to coordinate with like-minded parties against the DMK. The BJP was the first to come into our alliance. Very soon, many other parties will follow,” he said.
EPS’s statement comes at a time when there is unrest in the AIADMK over aligning with the BJP once again. Sources in the party said that seniors in the party are unhappy with the alliance and have expressed the same with the leadership.
At the press meet in Chennai on April 11, Amit Shah said that the BJP, AIADMK and other allies will fight the upcoming 2026 Assembly Elections as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “This election at a national level will be fought under Modi’s leadership and at the state level it will be led by AIADMK general secretary EPS.”
“I am confident that in the upcoming general elections, the NDA will get an absolute majority and we will form the NDA government in Tamil Nadu once again.” He added.
To a pointed question on whether the AIADMK and BJP will together form a coalition government, he categorically stated “Yes, we will form a coalition government together and we will contest elections under the leadership of EPS.”
When a follow-up question was posed on whether BJP MLAs will occupy ministerial positions if they win in the election, Amit Shah said, “We will decide about that after winning the elections. I don’t want to leave any confusion for the DMK, we will fight the elections under EPS leadership,” he said.
At one point Amit Shah also spoke about seat sharing and allocation of portfolios, “Both our units will sit together and decide later,” he said.
Reacting to EPS’s statement, Tamil Nadu BJP State President Nainar Nagendran said that the BJP leadership was in talks with the AIADMK and he would not want to comment on it further.