Chennai: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday reiterated that the party will not tie-up with the BJP for the 2026 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, amid heated exchanges between leaders of both parties on how an AIADMK-BJP alliance could have helped win seats in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to reporters in Salem for the first time after the AIADMK faced a rout in the polls, Palaniswami claimed that his party did marginally improve its vote share from 19 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent in 2024. However, figures show AIADMK’s vote share saw an increase this time because the party contested in 10 seats more this time than it did in 2019.
He also asserted that the AIADMK will “bounce back” from the poll defeat by coming back to power when elections to the state assembly are held in the summer of 2026.
“AIADMK walked out of the NDA and severed ties with the BJP in September 2023. We realised that there was no use in aligning with national parties as they are friendly with us only to win seats. Once they win seats, they don’t care about Tamil Nadu. This was the case with both the Congress and the BJP,” Palaniswami said.
“We as a party decided not to ally with the BJP. And I made my stand clear that the decision not to align with the BJP is not just for 2024 but for 2026 elections too. That decision stays. The AIADMK will stitch a formidable alliance for the 2026 elections and emerge victorious,” he added.
Palaniswami’s statement comes amid a blame game between leaders of the AIADMK and BJP on who broke the alliance and whether the two parties, if they were together, could have given the DMK a run for its money in the elections. AIADMK leaders S P Velumani and R B Udhayakumar blamed state BJP chief K Annamalai for their party walking out of the alliance, while some BJP leaders too criticized their state leadership for contesting alone.
The former chief minister said Velumani never said the AIADMK-BJP alliance could have won over 30 seats but merely quoted a news report in this regard. Palaniswami also trained his guns on Annamalai for “claiming” that the BJP’s vote share has increased this election.
“They (BJP) contested in more seats this time. And the combined vote share of the NDA now is less than the percentage scored by the alliance in 2014,” Palaniswami said. The vote percentage of every party including the ruling DMK declined when compared to the 2019 elections but only the percentage of AIADMK increased. “We will see what to do to win the next elections,” the Leader of Opposition said.
The party posted one of its worst performances in recent years in the April 19 Lok Sabha polls with the party being relegated to the third slot in 11 constituencies by the BJP, and its allies, and to the fourth position in one seat by Tamil nationalist outfit, Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK).
The party garnered 20.46 per cent votes by contesting in 34 constituencies, including two candidates from other parties who entered the fray in the Two Leaves symbol, which is a marginal increase from 19.30 per cent it scored in the 2019 by contesting in just 22 seats. Its ally, DMDK, which lost the Virudhunagar seat by a whisker, scored 2.5 per cent votes, taking the alliance’s combined vote share to 23.05 per cent.