Disgruntlement in AIADMK allies over BJP's election panel

CHENNAI: The BJP's Tamil Nadu unit announcement on the constitution of 14-member committee for the by-poll for Erode Constituency has not gone down well among its ally AIADMK, which heads the NDA alliance in the State.

Several leaders in the party said that they think "too much" about themselves and often cross the limits of an alliance, while few others termed it as "bogey". "We did not expect the BJP state unit to act in such an immature manner. We know it's a message from our minor partner to score a brownie point in the present murky political situation prevailing in the party. Just because they are in power in the Centre, they cannot dictate terms in the state where they have no hold," said a senior AIADMK leader based in Western TN, who is also a strong supporter of the party's 'interim' general secretary and leader of opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Meanwhile, a TN BJP leader defended state president K Annamalai's announcement of the election coordination-cum-monitoring committee and said it was a routine practice of the party. "It was nothing wrong and the alliance parties should not take it with a negative connotation," said the leader and rejected the perception that it would either field its candidate or force its alliance to contest in the party's 'Lotus' symbol.

State BJP president K Annamalai, while interacting with media persons at Chennai Airport, said forming an election committee was regular procedure of the party once election was announced.

"I spoke to both AIADMK interim general secretary (EPS) and TMC (M) leader G K Vasan regarding the by-poll and communicated the same to the national level leaders," he said and alluded that the party was not interested on short term goals (contesting in the by-poll). TN BJP will respect the spirit of electoral pact, Annamalai said.

Nonetheless, the BJP's move further fueled the discontent in the alliance, which was already in a dilemma due the ongoing tussle in the AIADMK party over the leadership. Though the Tamil Manila Congress (Moopanar) was allocated the seat in 2021 assembly polls in alliance, the leader of the party G K Vasan was inconclusive in fielding the candidate. He noted that the leaders of the alliance parties would take a final call in a couple of days.