'Party stand of no alliance with BJP will stay for all time,' say AIADMK leaders

Chennai, Nov 11 (PTI) Senior AIADMK leaders including D Jayakumar on Monday asserted that the party is fully committed to the firm decision it made last year that there will be no electoral tie-up with the BJP.

Speaking to reporters here, Jayakumar said that there will be no alliance with the BJP, "today, tomorrow and for ever and this is the AIADMK's stand," and added there will be no change on this stand.

"This decision had been taken by the party (in September 2023); there is no change in it, be it 2026 Assembly election or polls at any time in future," he said.

Party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami had made this pretty clear on several occasions, he said and blamed sections of media for 'distorting' Palaniswami's comments at Tiruchirappalli on November 10.

Veteran leader C Ponnaiyan said the party had already made it clear that there was no question of allying with the BJP at all. Alleging that the BJP betrayed the state, he said there will be no people's support to the Saffron party as long as it continued its 'betrayal' of Tamil Nadu on issues such as allocation of funds to the state by the Centre and in respect of securing the Cauvery river water from Karnataka.

On Sunday, AIADMK chief Palaniswami had said that electoral alliances are formed based on the political landscape ahead of polls, and that "nothing can be predicted in advance".

Responding to questions about power-sharing and the possibility of PMK and BJP joining the AIADMK-led alliance, Palaniswami, the Leader of Opposition, dismissed them as "hypothetical". PTI VGN ROH