All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is no longer an alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), party leader D Jayakumar said on Monday, 18 September.
Flashpoint: This comes days after Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai made a "derogatory" remark on Dravidian stalwart and the state's former Chief Minister CN Annadurai.
"Continuous remarks on Annadurai, Jayalalithaa, Periyar are not acceptable. When he (Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai) spoke about our former leader Amma (J Jayalalithaa), I said that we need to reconsider our decision on alliance," Jayakumar told news agency PTI.
"Due to such continuous remarks on AIADMK and on leaders like Annadurai and Periyar, it is now time to decide on our alliance. So, we have decided that we don't need the alliance with them," he added.
"Annamalai doesn’t desire an alliance with AIADMK although other BJP workers want it. Should we tolerate all this criticism of our leaders? BJP can’t set foot here (Tamil Nadu) if we are not with them," he further said.
Yes, but: It can all be decided only during elections and that is the party’s stand, Jayakumar was quoted as saying by The News Minute.
Flip-flop: Responding to Jayakumar's statement on Monday, state BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy told The Indian Express, “Anything can happen in politics. Alliances are made during elections."
"Jayakumar said the BJP is ‘waste luggage’, does he or his party not know this during the 2021 election? What happened then? They (AIADMK) say the BJP is no longer part of their alliance, a decision will only be made during the polls," Thirupathy added.
Later, Thirupathy clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that the BJP-AIADMK alliance was "rock solid."
Between the lines: Earlier this month, Annamalai had said, "Annadurai had in the 1950s made a critical remark against the Hindu faith at a programme in Madurai which was staunchly opposed by freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthumarlinga Thevar."
He made these remarks at a protest held against Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister PK Sekar Babu over his remarks against ‘Sanatana Dharma’.
In June, the former IPS officer had alleged that previous administrations in Tamil Nadu were corrupt, resulting in the conviction of former chief ministers in courts of law. He later clarified that he holds "Madam Jayalalithaa in the highest respect."
Step back: Chief Minister MK Stalin's son Udayanidhi Stalin delivered a controversial statement in September – calling for the 'abolition of Sanatana Dharma', equating it with diseases like “dengue, malaria and COVID-19."
It not only received a sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but also from a few of the DMK's allies as well.
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