After the DMK-led INDIA alliance secured a clear majority in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, the principal opposition party, AIADMK, blamed the BJP's state chief, K Annamalai, on Thursday for the party's decision to part ways with the NDA. In a press briefing, AIADMK leader SP Velumani said that if it weren't for him, the party, in alliance with the NDA, would have won 35 seats.
Highlighting AIADMK's performance in the polls, Velumani said that the party was successful in increasing its vote share from 19.39 per cent in 2019 to 20.3 per cent in 2024.
He claimed that the party severed ties with the NDA due to Annamalai's alleged insults to the legacies of Anna and Jayalalithaa.
Slamming Annamalai, he stated, "Earlier, we were in alliance with the BJP under the leadership of Tamilisai Soundararajan and later, L Murugan. However, after Annamalai assumed power, he continued to criticize our leaders, including Amma, Anna, and our leader, Edapadi K. Palanisamy, despite our alliance. Annamalai's actions led to our decision to exit the alliance. If the alliance had continued, we would have secured 35 seats."
Annamalai was defeated by DMK's Ganapathy Rajkumar by a massive margin of more than 1 lakh votes.
In contrast to the last election, where the AIADMK was able to secure one constituency, the party faced defeat in all 39 Lok Sabha seats this time. Once a dominant force, the Dravidian party has now been pushed to third position in 12 key constituencies, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coming in second place behind the DMK. The BJP secured the second position in nine of these seats.
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