The AIADMK ruled out any alliance with the BJP “for now” and removed two journalists who had in an article in the party organ termed AIADMK -BJP tie up as a “double barrel gun”.

The party leadership issued a statement saying the decision on alliance would be taken only during election. The curious case of the party organ is the fact that Maruthu Alagaraj had lost his job for writing an article against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Namthu MGR, the original mouthpiece of AIADMK , which is now with TTV Dinakaran faction. Since then he had been editing Namthu Puratchi Talaivi Amma.

While clarifying the matter senior party leader and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai said : “We have been working as an independent party on the floor of Parliament and not in alliance with the BJP.”

He further elaborated that the question of alliance would be discussed during the polls and a decision would be taken then only.

The AIADMK’s official spokesperson and fisheries minister D Jayakumar who had recently spoken against the BJP on issues like Cauvery also echoed the views of Thambidurai.

He clarified that his party would not bother to take support from the BJP if it worked against the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Reacting to the article published in the AIADMK organ, DMK working president M K Stalin said sarcastically that the point made in the article was true.

“They both acted together and brought in NEET; they both work together in denying the Cauvery Management Board,” he said. Meanwhile, Pugazhendi, senior leader of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, led by sidelined leader T T V Dhinakaran, lambasted AIADMK for mortgaging the party in the streets of Delhi.

The action against the persons behind the article and some of the recent jibes by senior leaders of ruling AIADMK against central government in issues like Cauvery management board, appointment of vice chancellor’s in various universities by state governor are considered to be signals of party drifting away from the BJP which put them in a fix with little consideration for issues affecting the state.

Political observers are of the view that actually a party like AIADMK which holds more that 30 per cent votes in the state does not need any alliance with a party like BJP which holds a meagre two percent vote share and the leadership vacuum created by the death of J Jayalalithaa is real reasons behind the party’s weakness now. But the current leadership is slowly waking up to the truth according to observers.