Comments
When AIADMK’s General Secretary, Edappadi Palaniswamy (EPS), decided to come out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he took a gamble—and lost. The party has not been able to win a single seat in the elections.
In eleven of the 39 constituencies, the party came third, ceding the second place to either BJP or BJP’s allies.
AIADMK has picked up 20.47 per cent vote-share, slightly higher than 19.39 per cent in 2019.
In the 2019 general elections, AIADMK won just one seat (Theni). In the state assembly elections of 2021, the party lost and had to cede power to its archrival, DMK.
After these two losses a thought arose that they might be attributed to AIADMK being in alliance with BJP. It was believed that the association with BJP cost AIADMK Muslim votes.
Parting ways
In September 2023, EPS decided to walk out of NDA, hoping that the move would attract parties that were then in alliance with DMK to detach themselves from the alliance and move to AIADMK side.
That did not happen. The DMK-led alliance was intact—not a single party moved to AIADMK side.
In the end, AIADMK had to be satisfied with four partners none of whom were strong—SDPI (an outfit of the Muslims), DMDK (the once-strong party founded by late actor, Vijayakant), Puthiya Tamizhagam and the Forward Block.
There have been whispers about dissatisfaction within AIADMK over EPS’ decision to sever ties with NDA. With the rout in the elections, EPS will face a lot of flak from his partymen for his decision. Political analysts are near unanimous that had if the BJP and AIADMK had jointly faced the elections jointly they, the twosome could have gainfully harvested the anti-DMK votes.
On the other hand, EPS could take heart that his former colleague, O Panneerselvam (OPS), who leads a splinter group of AIADMK and hopes to lead the party again, is also staring at defeat. Same for TTV Dhinakaran of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, who is trailing too. If these men had won — as some expected — they could have vertically split AIADMK.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.