Did DMK, allies win because of a splintered opposition?

BJP State president K Annamalai, however, did not feel that the BJP would have done better by fighting the polls along with the AIADMK, saying that it would not be right to just add the votes polled by both the parties and conclude that together they would have got the same votes. For once an alliance happens, the electoral dynamics could change, he said

Annamalai was speaking to the media at the Coimbatore airport when he blamed the AIADMK for the split. He said that the AIADMK leaders expected to get the votes of a community by snapping ties with the BJP but ended up aligning with only a group having fundamentalist links.

Pointing out that the AIADMK had secured very low votes in three Assembly constituencies in Coimbatore – a percentage that would not qualify to get the deposit back – he expressed no regret over the BJP going it alone and told the cadre, some of whom were taking extreme steps like tonsuring the heads or cutting their fingers, to wait for the day when the party would win elections on its own.

Referring to AIADMK top leader and former Minister S P Velumani expressing the view that If the AIADMK and BJP had not broken the ties, together they would have won 30 to 35 seats, Annamalai said that it looked that AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palanisami and Velumani were at loggerheads.

Velumani said that the split came about because of Annamalai, who went overboard in criticizing AIADMK icons like C N Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa. But Annamalai questioned the rationale behind the claim of a possible victory by fighting together as the AIADMK had not won many seats even in 2019.

BJP candidate for South Chennai constituency and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, too, expressed the view that the split between the AIADMK and BJP was the cause for the two parties faring badly in the elections and paving the way for DMK’s victory.

Ousted AIADMK general secretary, O Panneerselvam, who now spearheads an organization by the name ‘AIADMK followers’ rights retrieval group’ and contested the elections from Ramanathapuram constituency as an ally of the BJP, gave a clarion call for unity among the 1.5 crore cadre of the party started by M G Ramachandran and nurtured by J Jayalalithaa.

He said it would be a crime to pacify the party cadre saying some reason or the other for the debacle in the elections and wanted all the party workers to be together, quoting lines from a film song of MGR that says ‘tomorrow will be ours if the brethren took the same path in a straight manner.’

However, AIADMK deputy general secretary K P Munusamy, told the media in Krishnagiri that Pannerselvam had no moral right to call for unity among AIADMK supporters as he was the one who was responsible for the various problems the party faced and even stormed into the party headquarters that is considered as a temple by party workers.

He said Panneerselvam had joined hands with Annamalai, who spoke disparagingly about Jayalalitha, to serve his selfish needs and even fought the election against the AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.

Proclaiming herself to be the general secretary of the AIADMK, V K Sasikala, said the AIADMK had done badly in the elections by even losing the deposit in 7 seats because it was divided. If the party had been united, it would have easily defeated the DMK, she said in a statement.

Also quoting the same lines of the song from the MGR film ‘Naalai Namathe’ (Tomorrow is Ours), she said that they could not wait anymore and urged the cadre to come together for the growth of the party.

Another AIADMK leader K P Krishnan told media persons in Trichy that Sasikala did nothing in the past two years to unite the party other than issuing statements and that T T V Dinakaran had launched his own outfit. What the party needed now was a capable leader bringing all together and recalling party founder MGR forming a problem solving committee to resolve an inner party dispute in 1995.

Former leader of AIADMK K C Palanisamy, in a Facebook post, warned general secretary Palaniswami of the party cadre moving away from him if he could not ensure the party’s victory in the elections. The AIADMK had faced many elections without any alliance and there was nothing great in going it alone in 2024. What was important was winning the election, he said.