Chennai:
The BJP’s loss in Karnataka may soon be compounded with a break with its only ally in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK. The southern ally, already miffed by the controversial comments of state BJP chief K Annamalai, has given an ultimatum to the party: “Rein him in, or else…”.
Mr Annamalai, who divides his time equally between needling the DMK and AIADMK, has made a comment the ally finds it hard to overlook.
AIADMK icon former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, he tacitly indicated in an interview with an English daily, was convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
The statement is factually incorrect. Although Jayalalithaa’s aide Sasikala and a few others were ultimately convicted by the Supreme Court in a disproportionate assets case in which the former Chief Minister was the prime accused, Jayalalithaa died before the final verdict. So while the top court’s verdict nullified the favourable verdict by the Karnataka High Court, it did not convict her technically.
The remarks have incensed the AIADMK, which has said unless action is taken against Mr Annamalai, they will “rethink the alliance”.
Senior party leader D Jayakumar said, “Annamalai is not qualified to be a state president of a party. He should mind his words. We suspect he doesn’t want the alliance to continue nor does he want Prime Minister Modi to win again”.
The state BJP chief often raises doubts in the AIADMK camp whether the former IPS officer and the youngest-ever chief state BJP, is acting as the mouthpiece of the party’s central leadership.
In March, he had spoken against allying with the AIADMK for the 2024 election.
Senior AIADMK leaders, who formed the long-awaited alliance with the BJP after Jayalalithaa’s death, are fuming. Jayalalithaa had not forged an alliance with the BJP for a long time despite friendly ties, considering the northern party a misfit in Dravidian politics.
Now, with the alliance under its belt, the BJP, which had negligible presence in the state, is attempting to project itself as the key opposition, capitalising on the tussle between AIADMK’s O Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palanisami, who had given green signal to the alliance.
The AIADMK had also suffered four consecutive defeats in elections it fought with the BJP — including Lok Sabha polls, assembly polls and local body polls.
With the BJP being seen as an electoral liability, both parties did not even campaign together ahead of the recent Erode East by-poll both in which the AIADMK lost.
Many say in an internal meet on Sunday, BJP chief strategist Amit Shah had set his party a target of 25 MP seats in the state, setting off suspicion in the AIADMK camp that the national party intends to contest 25 of the state’s 39 seats.
