A day after inducting the PMK into the alliance, the seat-sharing talks in the NDA seems to have hit a roadblock. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s visit to Delhi to call on the top BJP leaders has turned into a damp squib. BJP’s demand for 56 seats out of the total 234 constituencies and share in power seems to have irked the AIADMK camp.
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According to highly placed sources, the demand was reiterated by none other than union home minister Amit Shah during the meeting. Shah had been quite vocal in his demand for share in power and that the “NDA will form the government in Tamil Nadu.” In fact since the alliance was formalised in April 2025, Amit Shah and the other BJP leaders have time and again insisted on “power sharing” while the AIADMK leadership maintained that the AIADMK will form a majority government. Incidentally, when Piyush Goyal called on Palaniswami, a few weeks before, to discuss the seat-sharing pact, sources said that the AIADMK leadership insisted that his party will contest from 170 seats and only 64 seats can be shared with the alliance partners.
“We are particular that our demand for share in power is met with. The demand for three ministers in the cabinet and share in power was insisted by our home minister during his talks with Velumani in Tiruchirapalli. There is no going back from this statement,” a senior BJP leader told THE WEEK.
Sources also say that during his meeting with Palaniswami in Delhi, Shah had insisted that the BJP be given close to 56 seats out of the 234 assembly segments by mentioning the party’s performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP along with PMK and a few factions of the AIADMK secured an impressive 19 percent vote share in the 2024 elections and 11 percent on its own. It is said that Shah also insisted that O. Panneerselvam and T.T.V. Dhinakaran also should be inducted into the NDA fold and that seats will be shared from the 56 the BJP gets.
Apparently, Palaniswami did not heed to these demands and the talks with Shah on seat sharing in Delhi was inconclusive, according to AIADMK insiders. Sources also say that Palaniswami will not agree for “power sharing” as it will demoralise the party cadres. “This can be decided only after the election. Announcing it in advance will only make us fall in trap and help the DMK which has been saying that the BJP will rule the state if we come to power. Our leader will not agree to this, come what may,” one of the former ministers told THE WEEK.
However, addressing an ad hoc press conference in Delhi, Palaniswami reiterated that rebel leaders Panneerselvam and V.K. Sasikala will not be inducted into the party. When asked about allowing Dhinakaran's AMMK to get into the NDA fold, Palaniswami said, “All that will be decided in the due course and announcements will be made accordingly.”
While Palaniswami is adamant to not to induct Sasikala or OPS or Dhinakaran, the BJP believes that OPS and Dhinakaran’s role will be imperative in securing the Thevar votes in southern Tamil Nadu.
