Dogfight Between AIADMK and BJP Begins

 Chennai: Political rivalry between erstwhile allies, the BJP and AIADMK, is slowly degenerating into an acrimonious dogfight more than fourth months after they broke up even as the once isolated faction of the AIADMK, led by O Panneerselvam, shows signs of revival with the new found hope of aligning with the BJP and regaining the ‘two leaves’ symbol and the party’s ownership ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

While the BJP and AIADMK leaders refrained by attacking each after the split in September, 2023, for a long time, the vitriolic slugfest started very recently with prominent AIADMK leaders like D Jayakumar, Dindigul Srinivasan, R B Udhayakumar and K P Munusamy targeting BJP State president K Annamalai, who too started hitting back.

Annamalai earned the wrath of the AIADMK leaders mainly for taunting the party as a ‘pangali katchi’ (fraternal party) of the DMK when there was no announcement of any big agitation for a long time after former Union Minister and DMK MP, A Raja, spoke disparagingly of M G Ramachandran (MGR), the founder of AIADMK.

Since the DMK, too, was accusing the AIADMK of not actually severing ties with the BJP but just putting up a drama, the AIADMK was under stress to prove that it had actually walked out of the NDA and that there was no scope for rescinding the decision. So the AIADMK leaders started firing salvos at Annamalai, who, too, broke his initial silence and began hitting back, giving some credence to the claim of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami that the dalliance with the BJP was over, forever.

Though the miniscule rival faction in the AIADMK, led by Pannerselvam, had been persistently trying to hook up with the BJP and find a place in the NDA ever since Palaniswami and his cohorts disgraced Panneerselvam and threw him out, the BJP, despite its inclination to avoid the splintering of the composite vote bank of the AIADMK, could not let them into the NDA.

With Palaniswami putting his foot down on not letting the BJP entertain the entreaties of Panneerselvam and other former AIADMK leaders like V K Sasikala and T T V Dinakaran, the BJP played along with Palaniswami as he was leading the major faction and had also subsequently won the court cases on the ownership of the party’s title, flag and symbol.

Now with Panneerselvam suddenly vowing to contest the Lok Sabha elections on the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, giving an indication that he might wrest it for himself, doubts have risen if the BJP was trying to rehabilitate the faction by entrusting the iconic election symbol popularized by MGR and Jayalalithaa with him since Palaniswami has been recalcitrant and refuses to reconsider the break up.

Giving some credence to that speculation of the symbol being possibly wrested out of Palaniswami’s hands is Panneerselvam’s sudden emergence as an active campaigner who has been going from place to place, addressing supporters and exuding confidence of sweeping the elections under the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.

The development has also given the jitters to many in the AIADMK as they are said to have started resenting Palaniswami’s ‘hasty decision’ to walk out of the NDA which had paved the way for Pannerselvam to cozy up to the BJP.

Also the inability of the AIADMK to attract more allies to present a rainbow alliance during the elections is making many in the party skeptical of regaining the old glory even after jettisoning the BJP.

So, the fear among many AIADMK supporters now is that the BJP-led alliance that is in the making might fare well in the elections, as some poll surveys have also predicted, prompting more traditional AIADMK cadre and supporters to throw their weight behind the now isolated Pannerselavam, consequently strengthening the BJP in the State.