AIADMK holds meet to discuss TN poll strategy
The AIADMK, suffered a drubbing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after losing almost all its alliance partners to the BJP
As the AIADMK looks to form a solid alliance to fight the 2026 assembly elections, the party’s general secretary and leader of opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) reportedly asked his functionaries and leaders to avoid criticising political parties other than the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leaders who attended the meeting on Wednesday said on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, EPS held a meeting with the district secretaries of the AIADMK in Chennai to chalk out the strategy for the assembly elections. “We discussed our strategy for the 2026 elections in today’s meeting,” AIADMK’s organising secretary D Jayakumar told reporters after the meeting. “We will build a strong coalition against the DMK.”
The AIADMK, suffered a drubbing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after losing almost all its alliance partners to the BJP. Last September, the party broke its alliance with the BJP and is hoping to form an alliance with other parties, including the “secular” ones. After disassociating itself from the NDA, the AIADMK blames the former for “alienating its minority vote bank”. EPS has been trying to woo allies of the DMK such as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK, formerly the Dalit Panthers of India).
“Our prime rival is DMK at the state level and BJP at the national leader. EPS told us at the meeting to avoid unnecessary comments against other parties,” a senior leader close to EPS said, requesting anonymity.
EPS’ remarks also come at a time when actor-politician Vijay said that he is open to allies and to form a coalition government in 2026, a key demand of the VCK. Vijay announced that the DMK and BJP are his political and ideological enemies and did not attack AIADMK in his hour-long speech during the maiden state conference of his party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, which was held on October 27 in Villupuram.
EPS has previously said that Vijay did not mention the AIADMK because they are functioning well as an opposition party. However, he also warned that many players have tried to alter the bipolarity of Tamil Nadu’s politics dominated by the two Dravidian majors, but failed.
When asked if Vijay was trying to appease the AIADMK vote bank by hailing its party founder MG Ramachandran (MGR), EPS said that both MGR and his successor, J Jayalalithaa, were stalwarts who showed what political leadership should look like, and added that their vote bank would remain with them.
Further in the meeting on Wednesday, EPS asked the district secretaries to make people aware that the policies of the ruling DMK are against their well-being.