AIADMK will win polls, form government in Tamil Nadu on its own: EPS to Stalin
During his campaign on Saturday night, EPS shared an incident from the assembly proceedings where he said Stalin was on his feet and asked him directly why the AIADMK had tied up with the BJP
While rejecting the possibility of a coalition government, Tamil Nadu’s leader of Opposition Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) during his statewide tour ahead of the 2026 assembly elections attacked DMK leader and chief minister MK Stalin and said AIADMK is not a “fool” while reiterating that it will form a majority government independently.
In a video during his campaign on Saturday night, EPS shared an incident from the assembly proceedings where he said Stalin was on his feet and asked him directly why the AIADMK had tied up with the BJP after saying that no reconciliation was possible.
“I was shocked and wondered why the chief minister was asking me this question,” EPS said. “I responded to him that AIADMK is our party and we will form an alliance as per our wish. I asked him why he was scared and he sat down.” EPS continued that Stalin was scared of the AIADMK-BJP alliance. The video of the rally went viral on Sunday.
“Stalin is also saying that the AIADMK will form a coalition government with BJP. Mr Stalin, we are not fools. AIADMK will win with a majority and form the government independently. We will decide if we want an alliance or not. We are not desperate like you who is a dynastic politician. We will do what the people want. And the people want the DMK out. We want such like-minded parties to join us. The BJP considers the DMK a corrupt party and wants to defeat them. That’s why the BJP has joined us and more parties will join us and we will defeat you.”
AIADMK and BJP which came together this April after a 19-month of bitter separation have been contradicting each other on the issue of power sharing. EPS had previously clarified that there was no rift with the BJP on the issue, he added that he would be the chief ministerial candidate and he will make the decisions.
In response to EPS’s remarks on DMK, party spokesperson A Saravanan said: “If AIADMK is not a fool, then is EPS saying that Amit Shah is a fool? It is they who are scared and have mortgaged Tamil Nadu’s rights. AIADMK has not won a single election after J Jayalalithaa’s death. The DMK alliance has been tight and won every election in the last few years and will win the 2026 polls too.”
The pitch for a coalition government has sparked a political controversy and push back from the AIADMK. Senior AIADMK leaders had said that Tamil Nadu voters will reject a coalition government citing the example of the1980 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu – when the DMK and the Congress proposed a coalition government, people of Tamil Nadu rejected them and voted the AIADMK as the single largest party. Both the Dravidian majors, the DMK and the AIADMK, have historically resisted coalition governments in Tamil Nadu, even though they have been part of coalition governments at the national level. In the 2006 assembly elections, when no party had an absolute majority, then DMK chief M Karunanidhi formed a minority government with outside support from parties such as the Congress and Left parties.
