AIADMK minister affirms 'no coalition talks' for 2021 state polls, amid row with ally BJP

Gearing up for Tamil nadu state polls in 2021, AIADMK minister D Jayakumar on Sunday, claimed that there was 'no room for talks for a coalition government in Tamil Nadu'. He added that ' AIADMK will get a decisive mandate' and return for a third consecutive term. AIADMK rejoined the NDA in 2019, contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in April in coalition with BJP. 

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AIADMK: 'No talks of coalition'

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'Vetri Vel' Yathra row

Recently, the AIADMK government refused to allow BJP state chief L Murugan to undertake a "Vel Yatra"  in honour of Lord Muruga and covering his six abodes across the state, citing COVID-19 spread. Murugan, several other leaders and supporters were held on Friday at Tiruttani, about 80 km from here, when he was about to launch the yatra without permission and later let off. Two days after detaining him briefly, police picked up Murugan, former union minister C P Radhakrishnan and others when they tried to take out the second leg of the yatra from Thiruvottiyur in north Chennai and lodged them in a nearby marriage hall.

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Tamil Nadu polls 2021

Aping BJP which had promised 'free COVID vaccines' ahead of the Bihar polls, Tamil Nadu CM E Palaniswamy who has been named AIADMK's CM candidate, has made a similar promise, keeping in mind the polls to be held in May 2021. Recently the two warring factions in AIADMK - of Deputy CM O Pannerselvam (OPS) and CM E Palaniswamy (EPS), reconciled after the party named incumbent E Palaniswamy as its CM candidate and O Panneerselvam as the chief of the 11-member steering committee. The 2021 polls will be the first state assembly elections in the absence of late AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalitha and late DMK patron M Karunanidhi.

AIADMK which has banned its leaders form airing political views to the media was split into two camps  - OPS (who was chosen by Jayalalitha as her Deputy) and EPS (chosen by VK Sasikala - former general secretary & ex-aide of Jayalalitha) since the demise of five-time CM Jayalalitha in 2016. Sasikala, who may be released on January 27, 2021 from Bengaluru prison, eyes rejoining AIADMK, but has been ruled out by the party as of now. In 2016, amid the impasse between the two camps, the BJP had intervened to allow EPS to continue as CM and made OPS the party's Convenor, Deputy CM, naming the late Jayalalitha as the party's 'eternal' General Secretary. 

With the major vacuum in Tamil Nadu politics, Karunanidhi's successor and son MK Stalin eyes his maiden CM term. DMK cannot afford to lose a third straight Assembly election after sweeping the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with 38 seats. Other smaller players in the Tamil Nadu elections include - the TTV Dinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and Superstars Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and Rajinikanth's unnamed party.

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