AIADMK regroups with BJP after 18 months; to fight TN poll together

Tamil Nadu on Friday witnessed a realignment of forces with the AIADMK returning to the BJP-led NDA fold after 18 months and the two partners announcing a pact for the 2026 Assembly elections.

“The AIADMK and the BJP have decided to fight the next Assembly elections together. Since 1998, the AIADMK has been part of the BJP-led alliance at different points of time. PM Narendra Modi and late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had collaborated for Centre-state ties," Home Minister and BJP’s chief election strategist Amit Shah said in Chennai today.

Shah took the occasion to attack the MK Stalin-led ruling DMK for pursuing “parochial politics”. He questioned the DMK for undermining Sanatan Dharma and “fear-mongering around delimitation and three-language formula”.

Flanked by AIADMK chief E Palaniswami and outgoing Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, Shah said Palaniswamy will lead the alliance in the state. The AIADMK had on September 25, 2023, quit the NDA in a major upset for the saffron forces in Tamil Nadu on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. At the time, the AIADMK leadership had passed a unanimous resolution to end their four-year-old alliance with the BJP, blaming Annamalai for “punching above his weight”.

With Annamalai recently quitting as the state BJP chief and three-time MLA Nainar Nagendran all set to replace him (has filed singular nomination for post), the saffron forces have addressed the AIADMK’s concerns. Nainar is the BJP legislature party chief in the Assembly. Before joining the BJP, he was a minister in the AIADMK government from 2001 to 2006.

For the BJP and the AIADMK, the decision to regroup stemmed from realpolitik. After splitting, the AIADMK suffered a massive blow in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu as it couldn’t open its account while rival DMK won all 22 of the 39 seats it contested. The BJP too drew a blank, but it got 11.10 per cent votes, more than DMK ally Congress’ 10.78 per cent. Also, this was the first time the BJP secured a double-digit vote share and that too without the support of either of the two principal Dravidian players, AIADMK or DMK.

For the BJP, Tamil Nadu remains an unconquered battleground. But saffron forces are entering the 2026 state polls with renewed vigour, with the RSS recently reporting massive expansion of shakhas and outreach in the state. The BJP hopes to draw electoral strength from the RSS’ new-found organisational base in the state.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP contested 23 seats and got 3.6 per cent votes, winning the Kanyakumari seat. Ally AIADMK too had won one seat.

In 2021, the DMK-led coalition swept the Assembly elections, bagging 159 of the 234 seats against 75 by the AIADMK-headed bloc. The DMK won 133 seats and the AIADMK 66.

The AIADMK’s return to the NDA comes barely 16 days after Palaniswamy met Shah in Delhi and a few days after PM Modi inaugurated the country’s first vertical set lift bridge on April 6 (Ram Navami Day) in Rameswaram.

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