Overview

• Edappadi K. Palaniswami firmly dismissed any idea of a post-poll alliance and said AIADMK will win an outright majority in the 2026 assembly election.
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly affirmed that BJP would join a state NDA government if the alliance wins, creating public contradictions with Palaniswami’s stance.
• Senior AIADMK figures D. Jayakumar, RB Udayakumar and Sellur K. Raju have all backed Palaniswami in rejecting a coalition experiment in Tamil Nadu.
• BJP’s overtures to regional outfits like Vijayakant’s DMDK and the PMK are part of its strategy to expand the NDA’s state footprint.
• The dispute underlines AIADMK’s insistence on state-level autonomy despite its national partnership with the BJP.