PMK joins NDA Ahead of Tamil Nadu Elections
With the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections approaching, political activity in the state has intensified
Chennai: Expediting alliance deals for the 2026 Assembly elections, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami finalized a pact with the PMK faction headed by Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday before boarding a flight to New Delhi to discuss other issues relating to tie-ups with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a bid to wrap up the NDA coalition in the State ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chennai on January 28.
While Anbumani Ramadoss called on Palaniswami at his residence for striking the deal, details of which were not revealed, PMK founder S Ramadoss reacted instantly claiming no agreements could be entered into on behalf of his party other than him. A party statement said that ever since the senior Ramadoss was elected as president on December 17, 2025, he had been spearheading the party and no one else was empowered to enter into agreements.
However, Palaniswami is reported to have promised to allocate 20 seats to the PMK led by Anbumani Ramadoss, which both the sides refused to confirm. While AIADMK leaders claimed that Palaniswami would meet Amit Shah and also Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi and would press for action on the memorandum he submitted to the Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday, sources said that he had been called by the BJP to finalize the coalition.
The BJP is reportedly concerned over Palaniswami resisting former AIADMK leaders like O Panneerselvam and T T V Dinakaran to rejoin the party as it feels that a united AIADMK would get more votes for the NDA and also piqued over the AIADMK not openly acknowledging the BJP as an ally but only talking in public about bringing back AIADMK rule to Tamil Nadu.
So while AIADMK honchos claim that Palaniswami would seek Union Government’s attention to his charges against the DMK government over the alleged Rs 4 lakh crore corruption, sources said that he would be asked to give the final shape to the coalition before Modi visited Chennai so that the entire ensemble of the NDA could be showcased on a single stage to set the tone for the launch of the campaign.
As of now the coalition led by the AIADMK, which included the BJP, had not raised its collective voice against the present DMK government from a single platform though leaders like Anbumani Ramadoss and Palaniswami had been berating about it independently. Anbumani Ramdoss claimed that his outreach towards voters had revealed a disillusionment over the present government and Palaniswami has raised the bogey of large scale corruption.
In the rival coalition led by the DMK, voices demanding share in power continued to emanate from the Congress camp, AICC leader Praveen Chakravorty, who raised a storm by calling on Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam president Vijay, not only justified the meeting but also claimed that the fledgling party had emerged as a political force with people seeing the founder as a political leader and not an actor.
Congress whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, had been openly advocating a power sharing agreement with the DMK through his messages on X by quoting AICC in charge of Tamil Nadu, Girsh Chodankar and also saying that power sharing was the party’s collective demand, indicating the seat sharing talks could be stormy.
The DMK, it is learnt, had already made it clear that there was no question of sharing power with electoral allies and that the possibility of increasing the number of seats for the coalition partners was very limited since they were expecting a few more parties to join them.
Since the PMK faction, under the leadership of Ramadoss, and the DMDK, led by Premalatha Vijayakanth, have not yet announced their affiliation to either of the coalitions, there is a speculation that they might join the DMK front.
