AIADMK-BJP Alliance On For Tamil Nadu Elections, Declares Deputy CM O Panneerselvam

In a not so surprising move, what came as a big announcement was the statement made by the Deputy Chief minister and party coordinator O Panneerselvam, that the AIADMK and BJP alliance will continue in the upcoming assembly elections.

Photo: ANI

The alliance between the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the BJP continued to be strong, after Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced on Saturday that the BJP-AIADMK alliance will continue for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in the state, due in April-May next year. The announcement comes during a visit by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Chennai.

"The Lok Sabha alliance will continue for the assembly elections. We have given 10 years of good governance. Our alliance will win the 2021 polls. Tamil Nadu will always support PM [Narendra] Modi," Mr Palaniswami said.

As Union Home Minister and top BJP leader Amit Shah got a grand welcome on his visit to Chennai today, he was received by the CM Edappadi K Palaniswami himself and Dy CM O Panneerselvam. Along with them were the State Ministers, BJP State president L Murugan, National General Secretary CT Ravi, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, senior BJP leaders L Ganesan & H Raja, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam.

Union Minister Shah was on his way to his hotel in Chennai, when in a surprising move he got down off his vehicle and made an unscheduled walk to greet the supporters. In a not so surprising move, what came as a big announcement was the statement made by the Deputy Chief minister and party coordinator O Panneerselvam, that the AIADMK and BJP alliance will continue in the upcoming assembly elections. On his visit to Chennai today, Amit Shah dedicated a new reservoir outside Chennai and laid the foundation stone for projects worth Rs. 67,000 crore, including the second phase of Chennai Metro. It is to be noted that during lok sabha elections 2019, both the parties came together along with other regional parties to fight elections. Out of 39 seats AIADMK fought on 20 seats whereas BJP on 5 seats, rest were shared among other parties like PMK, TMC (M), DMDK. The AIADMK that had 37 MPs in 2014 elections lost badly in 2019 and could win a lone seat, that was contested by O Panneerselvam's son P Raveendranath. It was clearly a clean sweep for the DMK. That managed to take away 38 seats. It is also to be noted that former CM J Jayalalithaa was never in favour of alliance with the BJP, despite the latter's approach. As political experts say, Making a strong ground in Tamilnadu is a difficult task for the saffron party as it is always considered as a Hindi and an outsider party. With the bad performance in 2019, will the AIADMK-BJP alliance be able to do magic! Remains to be seen. With Inputs From Pinky Rajpurohit