AIADMK to back BJP in Karnataka polls

Chennai: Tamil Nadu-based AIADMK has announced that it will not contest in the Karnataka Assembly elections but will support the BJP there instead. The party decided the same in its meeting held here on Sunday, IANS reported.

The AIADMK's decision to support the BJP in Karnataka comes at a time when the BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai had engaged in a confrontation with the party. However, sources in AIADMK told IANS that the BJP national leadership had requested the party to extend its support in the Karnataka elections.

The first executive meeting since K. Palaniswami was elected as the party's General Secretary was chaired by party Presidium Chairman Thamizhmagan Hussain.

The party has decided to convene a public meeting in Madurai on April 20.

A total of 15 resolutions were passed in the executive meeting, of which ten were against the ruling DMK, including one condemning it for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. One resolution was passed to authorise Palaniswami to lead the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The AIADMK, after the election of Palaniswami, is trying to win at least a few Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu in 2024.

The party is trying to conduct several programmes in the run-up to the elections, and the decision to support the BJP in the Karnataka elections is a political move.

The AIADMK had won only one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the 39 seats the NDA contested.

The DMK has announced that it will win all 39 seats in 2024 and has already appointed coordinators for each Assembly constituency to work among the masses.