AIADMK will not have any alliance with BJP: Jayakumar
AIADMK confirms no plans to ally with BJP for the 2026 elections, maintaining its stance against the party despite speculation of a softer approach.
AIADMK’s stance on having no ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains unchanged, organising secretary D Jayakumar said on Monday, amid speculations that party’s general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) might have softened his stance with the BJP.
“It is not about keeping the doors open or closed,” EPS said when asked whether the AIADMK’s doors are open for an alliance with BJP and PMK. “That may be the case in other alliances, but not in the one led by AIADMK. As far as we are concerned, we are ready to join hands with like-minded parties to remove the anti-people and corrupt DMK regime from power.”
His statement comes close on the heels of actor Vijay saying that he’s open to allies in October after launching his party Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) earlier this year. While Vijay said that DMK is his political enemy and BJP his ideological enemy, he did not mention AIADMK in his hour-long speech at the conference. EPS had said that since they’re functioning well as an opposition, Vijay hasn’t criticised the AIADMK.
Jayakumar on Monday blamed the media for “twisting” EPS’s remarks. “There is no way that AIADMK will ally with the BJP for the 2026 elections, or any elections for that matter. The party’s decision to walk out of the NDA and snap ties with BJP stays and won’t be reversed,” he said.
He also alleged that the BJP and DMK have a “secret relationship” between them by pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi making time to meet the current deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin in March 2023. “Which PM in the past had given appointment to a state minister? This is the kind of secret relationship that the two parties have. We are clear that we don’t want any ties with the BJP,” he added.
BJP leaders had earlier said that if they fight together with the AIADMK they would have had better chances to defeat the DMK in the 2026 elections. But the AIADMK has been steadfast against the BJP after they walked out of the NDA in September 2023. AIADMK and BJP were in an alliance from 2019 to 2023 and the combine lost every poll it contested for during the four-year period.