Is AIADMK keen on a tie-up with Vijay’s TVK?

Chennai:AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami exhorting his party functionaries to refrain from attacking any political party other than the DMK and BJP in their speeches triggered a speculation that the party was willing to have a tie-up with the newly launched Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor Vijay in the 2026 Assembly polls.

Addressing the party district secretaries meeting at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai on Wednesday, Palaniswami asked the party leaders to set up booth committees all over the State and also sought their opinion on the alliance to be struck for the elections in 2026.

The indication was that the party was game for an alliance with any party other than the DMK and BJP, while he gave a slew of instructions that were primarily having a bearing on the party’s preparations for the next elections.

One of the instructions was the distribution of new membership cards, bearing the signature and photograph of Palaniswami, to ensure that only their loyalists voted in the general council that he wanted to hold soon wind up the party’s election process before the end of the year and then start the work for the Assembly polls.

While the functionaries would be handing over their views on the alliance to the top honcho in the coming days, it is learnt that Palaniswami would like to have the TVK on board as the new party has the support of young and first time voters. By offering a plum post like Deputy Chief Minister to Vijay, he would like to lure him to his side.

Since the policies and principles enunciated by Vijay are in sync with that of the AIADMK’s objectives, Palaniswami, it is said, believes that there was no possibility for a discord in terms of ideological orientations between the two parties.

With Vijay declaring the DMK as TVK's political enemy, the AIADMK feels that all the anti-DMK votes could be garnered in the favour of the alliance that could be easily worked out though it is not clear if Vijay, who had launched his party putting in so much of effort and also spending money on the first conference near Vikravandi, would settle for the Deputy Chief Minister post.

Anyway, the AIADMK that had been desperately seeking an alliance partner ever since it broke ties with the BJP feels that the results of the 2026 elections could make or mar the party that fared extremely bad in the Lok Sabha elections with some of its candidates finishing fourth behind the Naam Tamilar Katchi of Seeman in a few constituencies.

A tie-up with the nascent TVK could pep up its prospects in the elections since such a coalition could get the overwhelming support of the people opposed to the DMK and the BJP at the same time, AIADMK leaders feel as they have lost hope in engineering defections in the DMK alliance, particularly after he VCK made it clear that it would remain with the DMK, come what may.