Amidst the growing speculation over Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition AIADMK returning to the BJP-led NDA fold ahead of the 2026 assembly polls, party general secretary and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) landed in Delhi on Tuesday.
EPS leaving for Delhi in the morning in the middle of the ongoing budget session of the assembly, has sparked wild speculation about the Dravidian major’s imminent homecoming into the saffron fold.
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Of late, EPS had given broader hints at a political realignment to take on the DMK-led alliance as the AIADMK had been losing successive elections. “The DMK is our prime adversary. Others are not. Defeating our enemy is our priority,” he had said in response to a question about a possible patch up with the BJP.
The AIADMK had walked out of the NDA months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, squarely blaming BJP State president K Annamalai for the break up. Both the parties faced the 2024 LS poll separately, with each heading a separate alliance with minor parties, which helped the DMK-led combine to sweep the election with ease.
While the coalition headed by the DMK remains intact, the AIADMK is striving hard to cobble up a front. While a section of the party leaders and functionaries, especially from the Kongu region, western Tamil Nadu, batting for reviving the alliance with the BJP, those in the north and central Tamil Nadu are opposed to it. The latter are apprehensive of losing the minority vote in the event of the party aligning with the BJP.
However, the reality of losing yet another election stares in the face of EPS. With new entrant actor Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) as well as the Tamil Nationalist ‘Naam Tamilar Katchi’ (NTK) of Seeman, which has secured 8.5 percent votes in the LS election, entering the fray, a multipolar contest is seen as advantageous to the ruling DMK.
In this scenario, EPS cannot afford to plough a lonely furrow like the charismatic Jayalalithaa and hope to dethrone the DMK.
The BJP has also softened its stance towards the AIADMK and Annamalai seems to have buried the hatchet so that the two could come together and form a coalition with other parties like the PMK and the DMDK. Further, the saffron leadership is said to be keen on bringing all the former AIADMK leaders like O Panneerselvam (OPS) and TTV Dhinakaran together and EPS’ Delhi trip is believed to be on working it out, say sources.
