Latest news with #BJP-Led
NDTV
17-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
'When Amit Shah...': K Annamalai Snaps At AIADMK In Tamil Nadu Pre-Poll Row
Chennai: Three months (and six days) into the AIADMK-BJP alliance for next year's Tamil Nadu election and there is already a storm brewing. On Wednesday AIADMK boss Edappadi K Palaniswami declared the state will have a single-party government - his - if the alliance is voted to power. Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai hit back Thursday afternoon. He repeated Union Home Minister Amit Shah's assertion that Tamil Nadu, if it votes for the opposition alliance, will be ruled by a coalition and that BJP will - for the first time ever - have a role in governing a state that has historically rejected its brand of muscular nationalism. "When Amit Shah reiterates a coalition government, I can't take a different stand," Mr Annamalai, sacked as the BJP's state boss in April after ties with AIADMK deteriorated, said. "If the AIADMK has a difference of opinion, or if there is some miscommunication, they can hold talks with Amit Shah and come to a conclusion," he told reporters, subtly shifting the onus to maintain the alliance back on the AIADMK by demanding they sort out internal issues. Mr Annamalai also defended reports the BJP will claim ministerial berths if the alliance can defeat the ruling DMK and its allies, which include the Congress. "Every party, including the PMK (a regional allied party) is demanding a share in power. Why target the BJP alone?" A retired police officer-turned-politician, his remarks follow a firm declaration by Mr Palaniswami, popularly called EPS. "Our alliance will win... but the AIADMK will form the government on its own," he said, "It is the AIADMK that leads... the BJP has clarified this." EPS' statement followed reports of unease over pre-poll power-sharing talks, i.e., the BJP wants a share in the government in the southern state and the AIADMK, acutely aware of the national party's lack of traction with voters, particularly those from minorities, is reluctant to play along. Whether these rumours are just that and the alliance will hold, at least till the election, is unclear. The BJP and the AIADMK did contest the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections together but lost both, and the fallout of those defeats carried over for the next couple of years. That fallout included Mr Annamalai needling the AIADMK over iconic past leaders until the Tamil party walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. The two parties contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election separately but, again, were thumped by the DMK. READ | "No Conditions": Amit Shah As AIADMK Back In BJP-Led Alliance And so, in April, they announced a re-alliance for next year's election. Mr Annamalai, who has in the past maintained the BJP should go solo in Tamil Nadu, has distanced himself from all this. "I didn't have any role in forming the alliance. I only defend what Amit Shah said." Either way, this week's grumblings have underlined the uneasy relationship between the BJP and the AIADMK, and their different (and starkly misaligned) visions of power-sharing. For the BJP, the 2026 election is another shot at cracking a state that (with Kerala) has defied the saffron brigade in the past, and particularly since 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. For EPS, though, the stakes are higher, because the AIADMK has now lost three straight major elections since he took over after former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death.
NDTV
16-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
"Our Alliance Will Win But...": AIADMK Warns BJP Before Tamil Nadu Election
Chennai: AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami declared Tuesday that Tamil Nadu will have a single-party government - formed by his party - should it win next year's Assembly election. The statement comes amid speculaton that power-sharing talks between his All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bharatiya Janata Party, his on-again, off-again ally, are ongoing, in the event they defeat the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Congress pair. But the ex-Chief Minister's statements seem to put an end to any talk of a coalition government in the southern state, one in which the BJP has historically struggled for traction and relevance. "Our alliance will win... but the AIADMK will form the government on its own," Mr Palaniswami, or EPS, as he is popularly known, said Wednesday. "It is the AIADMK that leads this alliance (and) it is my decision. I will be Chief Minister... BJP has clarified. What more do you need?" EPS also rubbished rumours of tension with the BJP, with whom he was allied for the 2019 federal and 2021 state polls. "The media needs a sensational story... but there are no cracks in our alliance. The AIADMK will win a majority and form the government independently," he said. The ex-Chief Minister last week began his 2026 election campaign by calling the alliance with the BJP a "natural alliance" that will "do good for the people of the state". READ | BJP By His Side, EPS Begins Campaign, Vows to End DMK Rule The remarks this week echo those from April - days after - the two parties announced their re-alliance. Then EPS had suggested that Tamil voters would not accept the BJP even if in a coalition. Any deal with the BJP, he suggested then, was "only for the election". The BJP then played down the statement. The party said it was more focused on winning the 2026 election and removing the DMK-led coalition from power. The AIADMK-BJP alliance broke in 2023, after strained ties as a result of snide attacks on the former's political icons by K Annamlai, who was then the state unit boss. READ | "No Conditions": Amit Shah As AIADMK Back In BJP-Led Alliance But in April 2025 they re-reformed that alliance, this time with Amit Shah insisting no conditions and demands had been placed on the national party. Mr Shah, however, more recently spoke about a coalition government in Tamil Nadu, something that has clearly upset the BJP's ally. Meanwhile, Tamil actor-politician Vijay is the dark horse in this election. Vijay's Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam has provided a parallel narrative so far; it has refused to ally with the DMK or AIADMK, Tamil Nadu's political giants. Vijay said he would never join ally with the BJP, which he called "our policy enemies and divisive forces", or Chief Minister MK Stalin's DMK, which he accused of being 'owned" by the former. Instead, the actor is set to contest solo and is his party's chief ministerial candidate.
Hans India
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Round table meet demands halt to Op Kagar
Vijayawada: The round table conference of Left parties and the civil society organisations demanded that the Union government immediately halt Operation Kagar and handover the bodies of the Maoists killed in the encounters in Chhattisgarh. CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna presided over the round table meeting held on Sunday at the CPI State office and CPI (ML) New Democracy leader Chittipati Venkateswarlu presented the resolutions in the meeting, which were unanimously passed by the leaders. The Left party leaders came down heavily on the Central government alleging that the BJP-Led NDA government had killed CPI Maoist central committee general secretary Nambala Kesava Rao in a fake encounter and other many leaders and tribals. They demanded the government to handover the bodies of the Maoists, who died in the alleged fake encounters. They also demanded that probe should made with the sitting judge on the encounters. K Ramakrishna and Chittipati Venkateswarlu demanded that the Central government should hold talks with the Maoists to end the bloodshed. The round table meet expressed solidarity to the tribals, who are opposing Operation Kagar, which was aimed to handover the valuable minerals to the corporate groups in the tribal areas. They demanded that the government should protect the constitutional rights of the tribal people and also demanded the government to withdraw the paramilitary and police camps from the tribal areas. The two leaders said the Maoist leaders were killed in the fake encounters and these were the murders committed by the government. They said it is shameful that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave statements greeting the police forces. They strongly condemned the delay in handover of the bodies of the Maoists killed in the encounters. They demanded that the government immediately handover the bodies to the family members of the Maoists. They said the Union government is behaving very cruelly and badly with the Maoists dead bodies and stated that no government in the history of independent India behaved badly as the present Government is doing. CPM leader V Umamaheswara Rao lashed out at the Central government alleging that it is murdering Maoists on the pretext of encounters. CPI (ML) Leader Jasti Kishore Babu, CPI (ML) Liberation leader D Harinath,MCPI leader Khadar Basha,CPI (ML) New Democracy leader M Ramakrishna and others spoke on the occasion.
