AIADMK all set to snap ties with BJP in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Oct 18 (IANS) Even as the BJP national leadership is frantically trying for a rapprochement with the AIADMK leadership in Tamil Nadu, the latter has unequivocally informed its cadres and district-level leaders that the alliance with the BJP is broken forever and that the party will not have any truck with the saffron outfit.

In a recent meeting with the district incharges of the AIADMK at Chennai during the party’s foundation day celebrations, former Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary, Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) informed the party leaders that the first agenda should be to communicate at the grass-roots level that the alliance with the BJP is gone forever.

According to sources in the AIADMK, he categorically informed the districts incharges that there was no looking back and that the party was in the process of forging new political alliances and combinations in Tamil Nadu.

EPS also told the party district incharges to communicate with him directly if the district office-bearers were creating any hindrance.

Sources in the AIADMK told IANS that EPS called upon the district incharges to make sure that the party wins all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry.

It may be noted that the five-year political alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP was snapped recently after the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president and former IPS officer, K Annamalai made scathing personal attacks against Dravidian icon and late Chief Minister, CN Annadurai and also against the late AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

The BJP, which was expecting a few seats by riding on the back of the AIADMK in the murky politics of Tamil Nadu, was in for a major shock after the AIADMK unilaterally snapped ties with the saffron party.

The BJP national leadership had used the good office of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma to negotiate with the AIADMK leadership for a truce. However sources in the AIADMK told IANS that the Dravidian party is keen to sever all ties with the BJP.