Break up with BJP is final: Palaniswami
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami asserted that his party walking out on the BJP was final and dispelled all doubts raised over a possible reunion after a few of its MLAs attended a meeting addressed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday in Coimbatore and also met her privately.
Breaking the silence that he had been maintaining since September 25 when the party announced the split, Palaniswami told the media at Salem after participating in an event to launch welfare schemes in his constituency, that the decision to leave the NDA and the BJP was based on the views of the two crore cadre who were not pleased with some of the recent local developments.
Denying reports that the split was prompted by the BJP making unreasonable demands on the allocation of seats for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, he said the party faced no pressure from any national leader of the BJP, be it Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah or J P Nadda.
Making it clear that there was no question of going back on the snapping of ties with the BJP, Palaniswami, in reply to a question on the DMK describing the split as a drama, said that what was going on in the INDIA coalition, in which the DMK is a part, at the national level was actually a drama.