FORCED GET-TOGETHER: ON THE AIADMK-BJP ALLIANCE

Union Home Minister Amit Shah displayed political urgency when he formalised the BJP’s reunion with the AIADMK, a year ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly election. A cautious Edap-padi K. Palaniswami, the leader of the AAADMK, was also persuaded to endorse a pre-poll agree-ment to form a coalition government. Coming just days after the ALADMK’s Rajya Sabha MPs voted against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, the move places the Dravidian party firmly in the NDA camp and severely restricts any leeway for it to take an independent line on issues of public interest.

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The newly stitched-up alliance could also lead to an electoral polarisation, narrowing the field for fence-sitters and marginal players who now have to choose between the fronts led by the DMK and the AIADMK to make any impact at all in the first-past-the-post system. Besides the electoral arithmetic, the BJP high command must have been conscious that time is needed to revive the chemistry between the two parties and to mount a cohesive campaign to dis-lodge the DMK.