Overcoming the differences with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) on Wednesday chose to rejoin the NDA. AMMK Party General Secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Wednesday called on Union minister Piyush Goyal at a private hotel in Chennai and confirmed his decision to get back into the NDA fold.
“We are happy to be back in the NDA alliance. Forgetting the past, we wanted to bring back Amma's government. To stop this government, we will form Amma's government. You all know who the NDA’s CM candidate is...for AMMK and Tamil Nadu's welfare, we have forgotten about all the betrayal,” Dhinakaran said.
Life has come a full circle for V.K. Sasikala’s nephew in the past eight years, since the death of Jayalalithaa. Dhinakaran was once controlling the AIADMK from the sidelines. After Sasikala walked into the Parapana Aghrahara prison in 2017, he floated his own party - Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam - as his animosity with Edappadi K. Palaniswami grew multifold.
Even when Dhinakaran has said that he had forgotten all the rivalry in the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu, the big question is the credibility. Dhinakaran might have called it as a “necessity” and that he rejoined the NDA only in the “interest of his party cadres.” For years Dhinakaran openly attacked Palaniswami and questioned his leadership. In fact, his AMMK was launched with an aim to uproot Palaniswami’s political career. It remains to be seen how Dhinakaran explains the turnaround in the coming days, to his supporters who were trained to oppose Palaniswami. Now Dhinakaran will have to campaign for Palaniswami as the chief ministerial candidate of the NDA.
Dhinakaran chose to stay away from the alliance, after he was denied an appointment when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Gangaikonda Cholapuram in July 2025. Though Dhinakaran and O. Panneerselvam got the protocol clearance to call on Modi at the airport then, they were denied an appointment at the last moment, which forced Dhinakaran to temporarily walk out of the NDA fold. He had quit the NDA by accusing the BJP for “cold shouldering” his AMMK to appease the AIADMK and Palaniswami. The BJP leadership too did not heed to Dhinakaran’s statements as the local leadership was confident of forging a mega alliance without his AMMK. But the AIADMK-BJP alliance in Tamil Nadu did not take off in the past six months, as Palaniswami was not ready to take back Dhinakaran and OPS into the AIADMK fold. But now the arrangement is to have AMMK in the NDA and he will hold talks with the BJP rather than the AIADMK.
BJP did not want to lose AMMK, as Dhinakaran still commands a strong vote bank in South Tamil Nadu, particularly the Thevar community or the Mukkulathor votes. Hailing from the Mukkulathor community, Dhinakaran scored close to 21 lakh votes across the state in the 2019 elections, which went up to 25 lakhs in 2021 assembly general elections. Dhinakaran apparently spoiled the prospects of AIADMK in south Tamil Nadu in the past three general elections. The BJP, however, brought Dhinakaran back into the NDA fold only after several rounds of deliberations and post poll promises.
According to highly placed sources, AMMK was roped into the NDA fold with arm twisting and high pressure exerted by the BJP. It is to be recalled that the two-leaves symbol bribery case involving conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar is still pending. Dhinakaran was earlier arrested in this case in 2017 and later questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in 2022. And in 2017, soon after the arrest of V.K. Sasikala, the two money laundering cases against him under the COFEPOSA act entered into a crucial phase, but is now lying low without any progress. It was in this case, Dhinakaran during his preventive detention under COFEPOSA in 1996 wrote a letter to the government claiming that he was a non-resident Indian and that he intended to migrate to Singapore as a permanent resident. He is facing two ED cases: One case pertains to illegal transfer of $10 million to a company incorporated in British Virgin Islands and the other case relates to payment of Rs 37 lakh to shell companies.
Party insiders say that Dhinakaran’s recent meeting with home minister Amit Shah in Delhi was the turning point which led to his party getting back into the NDA fold. It is said that the behind-the-scene agreement include a promise of Rajya Sabha ticket outside of Tamil Nadu and also an MoS in the next cabinet reshuffle.
However, it remains to be seen if Dhinakaran’s return into the NDA fold will fetch the Mukkulathor or the Thevar votes for the alliance, given the fact that he had groomed his votes against Palaniswami, who is considered as a Gounder leader by the people of South Tamil Nadu.