Not an End of an Era but End of an Alliance; AIADMK calls off marriage with BJP in Tamil Nadu

Ending months of speculations, AIADMK on Monday announced to part ways with the BJP in Tamil Nadu, in what can be called a major jolt for the saffron party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. That made AIADMK the 4th party after Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), JDU, and Akali Dal to leave the BJP and its NDA alliance.

"The state leadership of the BJP has been continuously making unnecessary remarks about our former leaders, our general secretary EPS, and our cadres for the past year," K P Munusamy, AIADMK deputy coordinator said while announcing the decision on Monday. The announcement led to euphoric celebrations among the AIADMK supporters in Chennai.

AIADMK is not part of the opposition bloc Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The party made it clear that they will go separate in 2024, essentially neither with the INDIA bloc nor with BJP but they may consider forming an alliance with smaller parties.

Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai had repeatedly made comments against AIADMK leaders and he continued to stay as the state president of BJP, meaning his comments were not objected to by the central leadership of BJP. In 2019, AIADMK went to the Lok Sabha election in an alliance with the BJP and won only one seat. A section of AIADMK leadership for long had attributed the poll drumming to their alliance with BJP. The same AIADMK won 37 out of 38 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.