Chennai, Feb 7 : The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK ), the political arm of the powerful Vanniyar community, has joined the team of negotiators for a possible patch up deal between Tamil Nadu's principal opposition party AIADMK and the BJP.


AIADMK leader CVe Shanmugam, who is a close confidant of party general secretary Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS), met the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder leader, S. Ramadoss at the latter's Tindivanam residence on Tuesday.

It may be noted that Shanmugam is an MP and a former law minister of Tamil Nadu. The meeting between Shanmugham and Dr Ramdoss lasted for more than an hour.

Sources in PMK privy to the conversation told IANS that the meeting was indeed for a patch up bid between the AIADMK and the BJP.

Tamil Manila Congress leader and former Union Minister GK Vasan, who is a coalition partner of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, had also met senior AIADMK leaders for a truce between the AIADMK and the BJP in the state.

The Vanniyar community of Tamil Nadu is very strong and has huge strength in central and Western regions of the state. The PMK is the political arm of the Vanniyars who have a strength of 16% of the total population of Tamil Nadu and no political party can brush aside the significance of Vanniyars and PMK in the political landscape of Tamil Nadu.

It may be recalled that AIADMK, which was the lead partner of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu, snapped ties with the BJP in September 2023.

The arrogance of new BJP state president K. Annamalai, who is an IPS officer-turned politician, was cited as the main reason for the Dravidian major to cut its ties with the BJP.

The AIADMK had then alleged that Annamali was using detogatory terms in public against iconic leaders of the Dravidian movement including the first Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from a Dravidian political party, late CN Annadurai as well as late Chief Minister, J.Jayalalithaa.

While negotiations are taking place on the one side, the AIADMK has publicly stated that it wont enter into any negotiations with the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

/IANS