All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on Monday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s central leadership has said that the alliance between the two parties will continue.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, and BJP national party president J P Nadda are the people holding discussions with us. The alliance was decided by the central leaders, not by those in the state. Even leaders here [Tamil Nadu] have said that their central leaders will decide on the alliance.”
He added they have normally discussed alliance matters directly with the central leadership and not the state leaders.
EPS’s comments came a day after state BJP president K Annamalai said he sees “nuances” in Shah’s comments in an interview with a TV channel that the two parties are allies for now but their partnership has not been finalised for the 2024 national polls. Shah was answering a broader question of BJP’s alliance with regional parties.
EPS said when J Jayalalithaa led AIADMK, BJP’s central leaders also directly spoke to them on the alliance.
On Sunday, former BJP state president and Union minister L Murugan underplayed Annamalai’s comments and said Shah has said that their alliance is strong.
Annamalai on Sunday told reporters that he discussed the matter with Shah and their opinions on the matter are the same. “As of now, we are in an alliance…But there are nine more months to go. How can we decide on the 2024 election dynamics now?”