NEW DELHI: Following a heavy setback in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, AIADMK on Tuesday declared that it would lend support to Vijay's TVK in establishing the government before the significant floor test.
Addressing mediapersons, AIADMK leader C V Shanmugam stated the party presently exists without any alliance, indicating broken relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the assembly elections.
He additionally mentioned that party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami intended to pursue an alliance with DMK to establish government.
"We created this party in opposition to the DMK. For 53 years, our political stance has remained against the DMK. Considering this background, a suggestion proposing that an AIADMK administration be constituted with the backing of the DMK was introduced.
Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of our members rejected and resisted it," Shanmugam stated.
"If we entered into an alliance with the DMK, the AIADMK would no longer survive. They declined to agree to such a circumstance. We presently remain without any alliance, and our priority must now be on rebuilding and reinforcing our own organisation. We finally resolved to provide our support to the TVK, which secured victory," he further said.
This follows widening fractures within the AIADMK that surfaced publicly after certain party MLAs, headed by senior leader C V Shanmugam, submitted a letter to pro tem Speaker M V Karuppaiah requesting the appointment of former minister S P Velumani as the AIADMK legislature party leader.
Earlier, several MLAs had allegedly called for Edappadi K Palaniswami to resign after the party's disappointing electoral showing.
AIADMK contested 167 of the 234 constituencies and succeeded in winning merely 47 seats.
Following the election outcome, multiple MLA meetings presided over by Palaniswami were conducted. Several senior AIADMK functionaries and former ministers, including Shanmugam and Velumani, together with MLAs supporting them, remained absent from the meetings organised by Palaniswami.
"There is an obvious division within the party. Numerous MLAs are seeking a leadership transition. If Palaniswami remains leader, there is a likelihood of certain MLAs offering support to the TVK," ANI quoted former AIADMK leader K C Palanisamy as stating.
Indications of internal conflict within the party were apparent earlier in the day during the oath-taking ceremony of MLAs in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly, where party lawmakers were observed seated in different groups inside the House.