Chennai AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on Wednesday met Union home minister Amit Shah in the latter’s Delhi residence amid a severely strained relationship with the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit in the recent days.
The meeting is significant as it is the first between the leaders after the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognised EPS as AIADMK’s general secretary following a prolonged legal tussle with expelled leader O Panneerselvam (OPS).
EPS was accompanied by senior leader KP Munusamy, P Thangamani, CV Shunmugham, D Jayakumar and SP Velumani. The meeting went on for more than forty-five minutes, said people in the know of the matter. The AIADMK did not divulge details of the meeting and said that EPS would meet reporters in Delhi on Thursday morning.
EPS has taken a stance that discussions of their alliance will only take place with the BJP’s central leadership and not its state leaders hinting at the strain with Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai. EPS also withdrew AIADMK’s candidate D Anbarasan from Karnataka’s Pulakeshinagar constituency saying that it was a request from BJP’s central leadership. “Now that it is clear that EPS is the AIADMK’s chief, it is possible that they discussed how they will take things forward and began the discussions for 2024 Lok Sabha elections in this meeting,” said a political commentator not wishing to be named. The AIADMK is also likely to have submitted a list of corruption charges against the ruling DMK government.
After eight months of legal wrangling OPS challenging his ouster in last July’s general council meeting EPS was made AIADMK’s general secretary on March 28. The ECI on April 21 declared that they updated their records with the changes in the AIADMK and directed that the two-leaves symbol be given to the party. This was after EPS had moved the Delhi high court and the court on April 12 directed the ECI to decide on updating their records with the changes within 10 days.
The AIADMK and BJP have been engaged in a war of words back in Tamil Nadu. On April 14, Annamalai released the first part of ‘DMK Files’ and asserted that he will expose corruption of all political parties that have ruled the state so far which indirectly meant BJP’s ally AIADMK as well. Following this, several AIADMK leaders had said that they were ready to face any list that the BJP leaders were to bring out and they won’t feel threatened. EPS chided Annamalai as promoting himself as a big person by merely speaking in media interviews. “I have been in the party for 50 years. I know the way of things. And leaders like us have come to a position to be answerable. Please do not ask me anything about him (Annamalai). Ask me about mature politicians and I will respond,” EPS said on April 15.
Then Annamalai went on the offensive on April 16 issuing a warning that when it comes to corruption they would not spare anyone. “We have no friends here. Everyone here is our enemy,” said Annamalai. “Whoever has indulged in corruption will be viewed by the BJP as an enemy. The plank of the 2024 parliamentary elections is corruption.”
Before this exchange, EPS had also said that AIADMK’s alliance with the BJP will be discussed with the latter’s national leadership and not the state leaders, hinting at strained ties between his party and the BJP’s state-unit. His statement came when Annamalai had said that the alliance between the two parties for the 2024 general election has not yet been finalised. He sought to clarify Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent comments about the AIADMK being an ally, and said the nuance of the comments in Hindi had been missed by some reports. Shah only said the AIADMK was currently part of the NDA and did not comment on 2024, the state BJP chief said at that time.
