AIADMK, BJP form alliance for TN polls

Highlights

To have common minimum programme for 2026 elections

New Delhi/Chennai: The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced an alliance for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections 2026 in a joint press conference.

Formally announcing the tie-up, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said: "AIADMK and BJP leaders have decided that AIADMK, BJP and all the alliance parties will contest the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu together as NDA."

"These elections will be contested under the leadership of PM Modi on a national level and under the leadership of AIADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswami on the state level," Shah said, adding that the two parties will have a common minimum programme. He shared the stage with EPS and BJP state president K Annamalai.

With this, weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations and backchannel meetings came to a close, marking the return of the NDA in Tamil Nadu with a bang. Shah’s talk of a common minimum programme was a message that the two parties will work together on a shared agenda, putting aside their differences on several core issues.

Allies previously, the BJP and AIADMK had an acrimonious split in 2023. The two sides worked out the leadership dynamics between them over weeks of discussions leading up to the alliance declaration. Annamalai was seen as one hurdle for the AIADMK, whose leadership had taken offence to his aggressive stance towards them ahead of their break-up.