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AIADMK senior leader and former Tamil Nadu minister D Jayakumar on Monday took a dig at BJP state president Annamalai saying he is unfit to be holding his current post. He also alleged that while the BJPs rank and file want to remain in an alliance with his party, Annamalai does not want to do so.
Earlier in the day, Jayakumar announced that AIADMK is not in an alliance with BJP as of now and that a decision about the alliance will be taken during the elections only. Jayakumar slammed Annamalai for criticizing leaders of his party including former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. "We can't accept continuous barbs against our leaders. Annamalai had criticized our leader Jayalalitha. That time we passed a resolution against Annamalai, he should have stopped this after that. But he continued, criticizing Anna, Periyar and the General Secretary (Edappadi K Palaniswami). No cadre would accept this," said Jayakumar. " With this decision (of not having an alliance with BJP), there won't be any impact on us. We are confident of our victory. To date, we are the biggest Party in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu AIADMK leads the alliance and we will attain victory in the election. As of today, the BJP is not there in our alliance. We warned (the BJP) many times but they didn't change their attitude. So no more alliance, he added. On September 16, AIADMK senior leader C V Shanmugham slammed Annamalai for his recent remarks on Annadurai during a BJP protest in Chennai. "Annamalai doesn't have any competence to speak about Peraringar Anna. In the name of 'Padha Yathra Annamalai is doing Vasul Yathra (Money collection Yatra)" said Shanmugham. Reacting to this Annamalai said, " Thieves will get afraid when they see a policeman". This is not the first time bitterness erupts in the AIADMK - BJP ties. In the past when Annamalai made remarks on former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, AIADMK passed a resolution against him. Similarly, Annamalai also took adig at AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami when a few functionaries from BJP joined AIADMK, however, the latter did not react saying they would only speak with the central leadership of the BJP. The ties between BJP and AIADMK in the state also suffered after AIADMK leaders said that their alliance with the BJP caused losing votes of members of the minority communities in the Erode East by-election which the party lost. It is this tug-of-war between Annamalai and AIADMK that led the latter to declare today that they are not in alliance with the BJP While BJP leaders argue that the fact that AIDMK is "insecure" shows that BJP and Annamalai are growing popular in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK leaders say without their party BJP is nothing in Tamil Nadu. As the relationship between both parties worsened, on September 14, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami met with Union Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and had a one-to-one talk for 30 minutes. (ANI)
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