Delegation reportedly apprised the BJP national leadership of Annamalai's behaviour that strained the coalition relationship in TN.
A team of former AIADMK ministers met Nadda at his residence on Friday evening. (Supplied)
Days after announcing the AIADMK was no longer in an alliance with BJP, the regional party’s leaders met BJP National President JP Nadda raising questions of whether the meeting was meant for a truce or further assertion.
Armed with complaints against Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, a delegation of top AIADMK leaders led by SP Velumani met the saffron party’s chief Nadda and Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Friday, 22 September, evening.
The delegation, also comprising P Thangamani, C Ve Shanmugam, KP Munusamy, and Natham R Viswanathan, however, could not meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah as expected.
The Delhi visit was a hush-hush affair with the AIADMK leaders flying out of the Cochin International Airport in Kerala, instead of taking a direct flight from Chennai.
The team met Nadda at his residence on Motilal Nehru Marg and apprised him of Annamalai’s recent “condemnable” speeches.
The Tamil Nadu leaders also delivered to Nadda a letter from their party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, or EPS, that detailed the events that strained the AIADMK-BJP relationship due to the conduct of Annamalai.
However, though the team had sought an appointment with Shah, they could not meet him. BJP sources in Delhi said the Union minister was busy in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Instead, the delegation was directed to meet Goyal. In the meeting that followed, the AIADMK leaders demanded the expulsion of Annamalai from the state presidentship for a continued cordial coalition between the two parties in the state.
The BJP sources also told South First that the AIADMK demanded the saffron party to appoint a Tamil Nadu in-charge, a post earlier held by CT Ravi.
However, sources close to the AIADMK high command said the meeting with national BJP leaders was a “private” affair. Velumani — along with the others — met the BJP leaders to invite them to a function in his family next month, they insisted.
Meanwhile, a senior AIADMK leader told South First that the meeting was to show that Palaniswami has no rift with the national BJP leaders and also to convey that he wanted a cordial relationship with them. At the same time, he also wanted to communicate to the state BJP leadership that he has an upper hand in the state.
Sources in Kamalalayam, the state BJP headquarters, expressed ignorance over the Delhi meetings.
Following the row over his speech against Dravidian stalwart Annadurai and the AIADMK’s announcement breaking its ties with the BJP, Annamalai on Thursday, 21 September, maintained that he has no issues with the coalition partner. However, the BJP leader refused to acknowledge Palaniswami as the chief minister candidate in the 2026 state elections.
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