Scent of truce: Shah mediates EPS-Annamalai meeting in Delhi

CHENNAI: In a meeting that assumed significance due to the open war of words between the two, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah held a meeting with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and the saffron party’s State president K Annamalai at his residence on Wednesday.

BJP president JP Nadda, and AIADMK leaders SP Velumani, P Thangamani, D Jayakumar, C Ve Shanmugam, and KP Munusami were also present during the meeting that lasted for nearly 50 minutes.

Though the party is maintaining that it was a courtesy call after EPS formally became the general secretary of the party, sources here told DT Next that the senior leaders flagged issues that created a rift between the allies following the controversial statements by Annamalai that ticked off the regional ally.

Sources added that the BJP leaders told the alliance partners that the party should get more seats in the 2024 general election. In 2019, the party had contested five seats.

AIADMK insiders added that election preparedness was part of the discussion. “Our party overcame the difficult times after a long legal battle. Now, we have set our goal to return to power. The party has already started the ground work and taken a massive enrollment drive to attract youngsters to the party. With less than a year left for LS polls, the party wanted to address certain issues involving the State BJP leadership, which often put us in embarrassing situations. This meeting will help us to iron out the fault lines,” a senior party functionary.

Apart from the issues related to the alliance, the AIADMK delegation also discussed the prevailing political situation in the State and drew the attention of Shah, the Union Home Minister, on the allegation of corruption involving the ministers and senior DMK leaders.

The uneasy relationship between the allies was worsened following Annamalai’s recent comment that he would expose massive corruption by not only the ruling DMK, but the other parties that ruled the State. With Congress rule a distant memory, the indication was not lost on any, especially the AIADMK leadership.

Palaniswami had recently said that he would hold talks only with the top leaders of the BJP in Delhi, and would never engage with the State-level leaders.