Electoral alliances would be decided only during the polls, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam co-coordinator and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami said on Friday, days after a Bharatiya Janata Party leader asserted his party has the right to lead the combine in the 2021 state assembly elections.
The party that shall head the alliance would be made known only during the elections and polls were not round the corner now, he said when asked if the BJP or AIADMK would steward the combine in Tamil Nadu to fight the polls next year.
Speaking to reporters after reviewing measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in Tiruvarur district, the chief minister said the parties that constitute the alliance have not been firmed up yet, be it in the AIADMK or the DMK camp.
"Hence, only during the run-up to the elections, alliances will be decided," he said.
BJP state vice-president V P Duraisamy, who recently joined the party from the DMK, on August 12 had claimed the saffron party's growth has altered the political landscape in the state.
The assembly elections due next year would, hence, be a fight between the BJP and DMK, under a "BJP-led alliance," he had said.
According to him, being a national party, the BJP had the right to lead the alliance in assembly polls.
Making light of Duraisamy's claim, the AIADMK had said such views, if aired by the BJP's state unit president L Murugan, would have weight.
The BJP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu as part of the AIADMK-led alliance which among others included the PMK and the DMDK.
