T.T.V Dhinakaran quits NDA: AMMK's NDA exit signals deep cracks in anti-DMK front

At a time when senior leaders of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP were seeking advice from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on inducting smaller parties into the NDA fold and working unitedly by burying personal differences, the alliance suffered a major setback.

The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), led by TTV Dhinakaran, announced its decision to withdraw from the NDA fold in Tamil Nadu. The decision to quit the NDA came after it became apparent that the senior partner AIADMK under Edappadi K. Palanisami (EPS) will not accommodate his party. “The decision to quit did not happen all of a sudden. It was a well thought out decision, after discussing with my party office bearers. We cannot continue with such discomfort,” Dhinakaran said, while announcing his exit from the NDA.

The BJP-led alliance that secured 19 percent votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with the AIADMK splinter groups in its fold, like former chief minister O. Panneerselvam’s faction and Dhinakaran’s AMMK,  decided to bring their parent body, AIADMK, into the NDA fold ahead of the 2026 assembly general election. The very idea of bringing back AIADMK under EPS into the NDA was to accommodate the factions back into the parent party or have them as alliance partners. However, Palanisami had often rejected all the options given by the BJP and the factions to reunite with the AIADMK. “We thought he would reform himself or be reformed by the BJP. But nothing happened. In the past two months, we have only seen an open display of arrogance by Palaniswami. He is a betrayer. We thought all supporters of Amma should join hands to defeat the DMK. But I think they don’t want us,” Dhinakaran said.

He also said that Amit Shah’s efforts to bring all the anti-DMK forces under one roof, to fight the ruling DMK in the run-up to the 2026 elections, had failed. Dhinakaran has apparently shown his reaction to being sidelined since the AIADMK joined the NDA fold. Incidentally, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi  was at the Tiruchirapalli airport on his way to Gangaikonda Cholapuram, both Dhinakaran and OPS did  not get an appointment to greet him. While OPS had sought an appointment with the PM then, Dhinakaran did not even seek a meeting.

OPS walked out of the alliance after feeling humiliated. And now Dhinakaran,  nephew of V.K. Sasikala, who had recently called for reuniting the AIADMK,  has followed OPS. In an emotionally worded two-page statement on August 30, Sasikala asked everyone in the AIADMK to bury their hatchet and come together. Two days after Sasikala’s statement, former minister and the party’s senior leader K.A. Sengottaiyan said that he will “speak his heart” on September 5. He has been rebelling against Palaniswami for the past few months due to the latter’s style of functioning.

OPS’s exit, Sasikala’s statement, Dhinakaran’s decision, and Sengottaiyan’s move to speak his heart cannot be looked at as isolated developments. Palaniswami, who is trying hard to retain his leadership position in the party and win the next election by joining the  NDA, may not be able to steer the ship as he wants to. The BJP, in fact, even before the 2021 elections, insisted that Palaniswami accommodate all factions. But in 2024, as his equations with the then BJP leader K. Annamalai did not work out, the AIADMK walked out of the alliance only to join 23 months later.

But now, the developments indicate a huge disturbance in the BJP alliance, as its calculations to win a major chunk of votes in South Tamil Nadu would fail. Hailing from the south, Sasikala, Dhinakaran, and OPS are considered to be the faces of the majority Thevar vote bank in the south. And again Sengottiayan’s disgruntled feeling could, again, hit the Gounder vote bank in western Tamil Nadu.

While Dhinakaran has said that he will announce his decision in December this year, sources close to him say that he will either contest alone or join actor Vijay.