Amid rearrangements in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reviving ties with the AIADMK on April 11 and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) found S Ramadoss taking over the charge of the party from his son on April 10, the national party’s new state president Nainar Nagendran on Sunday said that the central leadership will hold talks with the remaining allies ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
“The central leadership (BJP) will hold discussions with them (PMK and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam -DMDK). The DMDK sided with the AIADMK after the split in 2023. All of us have been in alliance together before. We will work it out.” Nagendran told reporters on Sunday.
Shah during his visit announced that the NDA in Tamil Nadu will be led by the AIADMK and its general secretary and leader of opposition Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) will be the chief ministerial face for 2026.
The Dravidian giant had left the NDA in 2023 after a bitter fallout over Annamalai, whom the party alleged repeatedly insulted Dravidian icons and party matriarch J Jayalalithaa. By replacing K Annamalai, Shah paved the way for the AIADMK to come back into the National Democratic Alliance fold.
Meanwhile, during Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai, PMK founder S Ramadoss at a press conference on April 10 announced his decision to take over the party from his son and Rajya Sabha PM Anbumani Ramadoss. Junior Ramadoss has now challenged his father asserting that he continues to be the party chief since he was elected by PMK’s general council. Following the BJP-AIADMK split in September 2023, senior Ramadoss wanted to side with the Dravidian major while his son wanted to remain with the BJP making them the senior most ally of the BJP in the state.
“There is an unexpected confusion regarding the position of the leader of the Workers’ Party,” Anbumani said in a statement released late night on Saturday. “I was elected as the party president by the general council in the meeting in Chennai on May 28, 2022, with the blessings of Doctor Ayya (Ramadoss) and with your support. This has also been recognized by the Election Commission of India…I will continue to serve as the president of the Pattali Makkal Katchi…I reiterate that my primary duty is to achieve the political goals of Ayya (his father Ramadoss) and steer the PMK to add glory to him. To achieve this, I will be meeting you very soon.”
On Sunday, senior Ramadoss held a meeting of PMK’s senior leader at his residence in Villupuram’s Thailapuram assuring them that the “confusions” within the party will end soon. PMK’s honorary president who was at the meeting. “He told us not to be discouraged and all the confusion will be settled soon,” a leader in the meeting said, not wishing to be named.