LS Polls: AIADMK Says Its Door is 'Closed' for BJP

Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK on Wednesday said it had already shut its door on the BJP and ruled out joining forces with the saffron party for the Lok Sabha polls.

Following Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remark that ‘the BJP’s doors are open for the AIADMK,’ senior party leader D Jayakumar ruled out any scope for an electoral alliance with the saffron party.

“Amit Shah has said the doors of his party are open for the AIADMK. As regards the stand of our party, the BJP was once a friendly party. Now, it is a party that we oppose out and out,” Jayakumar, AIADMK’s organisation secretary said.

In an interview with a Tamil daily, which was published on Wednesday, Amit Shah said the BJP’s doors are open to the AIADMK for an alliance.

Citing the interview, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai said Amit Shah did not specifically name or invite the AIADMK. On the other hand, it was an open invitation to all parties that accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, he said speaking to reporters in Delhi.

Annamalai wondered as to why the parties in the DMK alliance should be excluded from the scope of Amit Shah’s invitation as parties from the DMK front may also join the NDA.

Without naming Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai, the AIADMK leader alleged that the Dravidian stalwart CN Annadurai and late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa were belittled by him.

Annamalai’s criticism against such tall leaders continued despite his party strongly condemning it. “How can we accept it?” he asked, adding that the cadres and people were against joining hands with the BJP.

“When we severed our ties with the BJP, party workers burst firecrackers across the state; it showed the sentiments of our cadres; they do not want any alliance with the BJP.”

Only reflecting such anti-BJP sentiments, last year, the party took a firm decision of having no alliance with the saffron party at all the times to come.’ Jayakumar, a former Minister in the previous AIADMK regimes, said: “This party resolution, that there will never be an alliance with the BJP, was hailed by party workers and the people across the state. As far as we are concerned, we have closed our door on the BJP though they may keep their door open (for the AIADMK). We have closed our door to the BJP. We do not want the BJP to come to us. This is our stand.”

Asked if the AIADMK would reconsider its stand if the saffron party took action against Annamalai for his remarks against Jayalalithaa, Jayakumar asserted ‘there is no question of going back.’

Ever since his party snapped ties with the saffron party, former Chief Minister and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami has been all along maintaining that there shall never be an alliance with the BJP.

Furthermore, Annamalai said Amit Shah has been consistent in the stand that the BJP welcomed parties to the NDA that accepted the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“That was his point (in the interview). He did not specifically mention the name of any political party.”

In September 2023, the AIADMK snapped its ties with the BJP, following Annamalai’s alleged criticism of AIADMK icon Jayalalithaa vis-a-vis corruption allegations and Dravidian ideologue Annadurai for his ‘anti-Hindu’ comment made in the 1950s.