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Journalism of Courage
HARDLY had Union Home Minister Amit Shah left Tamil Nadu shores, listing the Modi government’s overtures towards the state and seeking 25 seats from the state in next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was left trying to do damage control with its valuable ally AIADMK.
The turbulence was set off by BJP state president K Annamalai seemingly criticising late AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in an interview, and grouping the AIADMK and DMK together when talking of corruption in the state.
Annamalai’s statements have often landed the BJP in trouble in Tamil Nadu, as he is seen as unmindful of not just the party’s junior status in the state but also of the particular sensitivities of its politics – including, it seems, of the AIADMK’s sentiments when it comes to Jayalalithaa.
In April, Amit Shah had specifically got Annamalai and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami to sit together and talk.
In an interview to The Times of India that appeared on Monday, Annamalai said: “I am not taking any party’s name, but we will question any government that has swindled public exchequer money… Many administrations in TN were corrupt. Former CMs have been convicted in courts of law. That is why TN has become one of the most corrupt states. I would say it is number one in corruption.”
Soon after, AIADMK spokesperson and ex-minister D Jayakumar slammed the Tamil Nadu BJP chief as a “misfit” and as “immature”, and accused him of breaching the alliance’s code of conduct.
Annamalai, a former IPS officer of Karnataka cadre, just 38 and handpicked to lead the Tamil Nadu unit barely three years after joining the party, was more interested in “self-promotion”, Jayakumar said.
“Did Annamalai want to thwart the AIADMK-BJP alliance’s chances in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls?”, “Was there a hidden motive to prevent a third term for Narendra Modi as PM?”, Jayakumar asked.
Calling “the BJP a mere plant”, while “the AIADMK is a big banyan tree”, the leader urged Delhi to “discipline” Annamalai.
Former CM Palaniswami also lashed out at Annamalai, calling him “irresponsible and immature”. He said the party’s district secretaries in Chennai had passed a resolution against Annamalai for “tarnishing the reputation of revolutionary leader and Idhaya Deivam (‘goddess in the heart’, as Jayalalithaa is fondly called by her followers) in a planned manner”.
Asked about what was brewing between the party and the BJP, a former AIADMK minister said both parties were in it together only for the 2024 elections. And that the AIADMK sees a tie-up with a national party as disadvantageous for it in the long run in the state; while the BJP too eventually wants to chart its own course.
The former minister said this “knowledge” informs the tensions in the alliance. “We are partners by necessity, not by choice. For the BJP, it’s like dancing with a partner who knows all the steps but hates your shoes. For the AIADMK, it’s being paired with a dancer who might just step on your toes intentionally.”
According to this AIADMK leader, Annamalai appears to have his own ambitions, in which he is a chief minister candidate at the head of a “third front”.
But that does not mean that souring of ties is what the BJP wants at this time, when it is trying to mop up as many seats as possible to equal (if not better) its 2019 Lok Sabha performance.
AIADMK rebel leader O Panneerselvam, who sees himself as the natural heir to Jayalalithaa’s legacy, unfairly sidelined by Palaniswami, said the BJP should not forget that Jayalalithaa was acquitted by courts. “Does a donkey know the smell of camphor?” he quipped, using a Tamil phrase to suggest that Annamalai was out of his depth.
Panneerselvam’s animosity towards Annamalai goes way further, as he believes that the BJP led by him played a crucial role in settling the AIADMK power tussle in Palaniswami’s favour.
Earlier, Annamalai had ruffled AIADMK feathers by declaring that the BJP would go against both the DMK and AIADMK over corruption, and by threatening to quit as state chief if “forced” to fight the Lok Sabha polls alongside the AIADMK.
Two senior BJP leaders said they could not claim to know what Annamalai was planning with his unpredictable strategies and statements, and admitted that many in the party were not sure if his bluster was not part of a larger BJP plan.
“What if he has Delhi’s approval?” a leader with significant clout in the state RSS leadership said. “In April, we were told that Annamalai would be stepping down by June, and make a comeback only after the 2024 polls. We are for now mute spectators in this fight between Annamalai and the AIADMK,” the RSS leader said.
