As AIADMK’s district secretaries, headquarters secretaries, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) gathered at the MGR Maligai in Royapettah, Chennai on September 25, former chief minister and AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) had one important message for them-  party’s leaders need to go to the public and explain the Dravidian party’s decision to leave the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

According to sources in the meeting, EPS said that the decision to leave the alliance was not a single person’s, but a collective one. He asked his party cadres and leaders to reach out to the people, and importantly, those from minority communities and regain their trust. The party leadership is of the opinion that minority votes have slipped away from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) due to their alliance with the BJP. 

The AIADMK exited the alliance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday, September 25. The announcement was made after a high-level meeting, in which several leaders spoke and recounted why the alliance was more detrimental than beneficial. 

Senior leader SP Velumani was the first to speak and conveyed to the party what transpired at the New Delhi meeting with BJP president JP Nadda last week. The Delhi meet had been attended by MLA Thangamani and Rajya Sabha MP CV Shanmugam as well. They had placed one demand– the BJP high command must take action against their Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai for his comments against their icons CN Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa. But there was no response from the BJP leadership. Moreover, Velumani told his party that the treatment given to the Delhi delegation was poor, leaving them upset with the BJP. Velumani contended that they must leave the NDA. 

Other senior leaders like KA Sengottaiyan, Semmalai, D Jayakumar who spoke after Velumani were unanimously of the opinion that the alliance must end. The party released a formal statement to the media after the meeting and EPS has restrained AIADMK leaders from commenting further on the alliance break. The former CM himself declined to comment to the media after the end of the meeting. 

Read: AIADMK cuts ties with BJP, walks out of NDA 

Watch: AIADMK breaks ties with BJP, EPS makes a formal statement