Chennai, Feb 24(IANS): The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the political arm of Vanniyar community which has been a NDA ally in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 Assembly elections, have started to tilt towards the AIADMK.
Earlier, AIADMK has said that it has snapped all ties with the BJP and will contest the 2024 general elections without any alliance with BJP.
On Friday, three PMK MLAs -- C. Sivakumar (Mailam), S.P. Venkiteswaran (Dharmapuri) and S. Sadashivam (Mettur) -- met AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS) at his camp office in Greenways road in Chennai to chalk out a workable alliance.
The three MLAs have however flatly denied meeting with EPS and said that they had met the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu but not EPS.
However, speculations are rife that the PMK is likely to enter into an alliance with the AIADMK.
Ragunath Krishaswamy political analyst told IANS that the probabilities of PMK entering into a political alliance with the AIADMK are high. “This alliance will be fruitful for AIADMK, PMK and even BJP in the long run,” he said.
He said that without BJP in the alliance, both AIADMK are acceptable to the minority Muslim community and this would lead to winnability for these parties.
“The BJP can anytime enter into a post-poll political alliance with these parties thus benefiting all three political parties,” Krishaswamy said.
The PMK State President Anbumani Ramadoss has been nursing ambitions for a Cabinet berth in the Central government. Sources said that Vanniyar community leadership is trying to make sure that one or two of PMK candidates get elected to Lok Sabha in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The PMK leader also knows that aligning with BJP in Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha elections will not give the desired results and that an alliance with the AIADMK can be beneficial to the PMK electoral prospects.
The PMK has always been an “opportunistic” political party in Tamil Nadu and knows clearly on how to play its cards for the benefit of the Vanniyar community and thereby share power in Centre post 2024 elections.