BJP and AIADMK announce revival of alliance, EPS to lead, says Amit Shah

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are back in an alliance and will fight the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections together, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Chennai. Addressing a press conference on Friday, April 11. Amit Shah said that the alliance would benefit both parties and they would be fighting the Assembly elections on issues related to corruption, law and order, women and Dalit and matters related to education.

Leaving no room for ambiguity, Amit Shah also said that Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) will head the alliance and there will be a common minimum programme announced. He also said that the BJP and AIADMK would decide jointly which other parties would be a part of their alliance. Both parties have aligned with several smaller parties in the past, including the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and Tamil Maanila Congress.



“There will be no interference in AIADMK’s internal affairs,” Amit Shah said. The AIADMK alliance in September 2023, after deciding that the alliance was detrimental to the party and the party was losing support among the people. One of the sore points between the two parties was Annamalai, the Tamil Nadu BJP president.

Just a few days before meeting EPS about the alliance in Delhi, Amit Shah, according to sources, made it clear to Annamalai that he could not continue as the president. The state unit of the BJP announced the elections for the post and former MLA and BJP vice president Nainar Nagenthiran is all set to take charge as the new president. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP garnered an 11.

24% vote share in the state. Its allies, like the PMK and Tamil Maanila Congress, managed 7.04%.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came second in 12 out of 39 constituencies in the state. The BJP and AIADMK are hopeful that if they contest as an alliance, they can poll in more votes and cash in on the anti-incumbency against the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government..