Chennai: Disillusioned with the party’s alliance with the BJP, former MP Anwhar Raajhaa, the Muslim face of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), joined the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.Stalin on Monday.
Raajhaa was expelled from the AIADMK minutes before he joined the DMK. In a statement, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS) said that Anwhar Raajhaa has been removed from the party’s primary membership for acting contrary to the party’s “principles and goals”.
Later, Raajhaa accused the AIADMK leadership of forfeiting the party to Bharatiya Janata Party.
At the DMK’s headquarters, he said that he was deeply pained that what was once a strong party is now in the hands of the BJP. “Whichever party joined hands with the AIADMK, it was the senior player and other parties will heed to the words of AIADMK and not the other way round. But, now the AIADMK is listening to the BJP’s words and the AIADMK is in the BJP’s hands,” Raajhaa told the reporters.
This is not the first time that Raajhaa has criticised the AIADMK-BJP alliance. In 2021, after the AIADMK lost the general elections, he openly criticised O.Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami joint leadership for joining hands with the BJP and losing the assembly election.
The AIADMK’s former organising secretary had expressed concerns over the BJP’s agenda to come to power in Tamil Nadu at the cost of the party. In 2021, at the party’s district secretaries meeting, he had expressed concerns over alienating the minority voters from the AIADMK.
Now after joining the DMK, he alleged that the BJP’s agenda is to destroy the AIADMK and take over the opposition place to fight the Stalin-led party.
“We have seen what happened in West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, their agenda is to dismantle the AIADMK and take that position in the state to fight against the ruling DMK,” Raajhaa told ThePrint.
He also accused EPS of not being able to assert his own position as the chief ministerial candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“Amit Shah has been reiterating that it would be a NDA-led coalition government in which the BJP will be part of it. No where Amit Shah has said that EPS is their chief ministerial candidate. Even Edappadi K Palaniswami himself has not been able to assert that he is the chief minister candidate of the NDA. Such is the state of the party,” Raajhaa told ThePrint.
In December 2021, then AIADMK’s coordinator O.Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K.Palaniswami had expelled Raajhaa from the party positions after he criticised the leadership for the AIADMK-BJP alliance. However, later in 2023, he was again admitted into the party, after the AIADMK severed its ties with the BJP in September 2023.
Anwhar Raajhaa’s political journey began after he joined the DMK in 1960s after being part of the anti-Hindi agitations and later joined the AIADMK when former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran founded the party in 1972.
Between 1986 and 2001, Raajhaa was the chairman of Mandapam village union in Ramanathapuram district. In 2001, he contested from Ramanathapuram and won the election. He was the labour and employment minister between 2001 and 2006. Later, in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he successfully contested from Ramanathapuram.
Stating that he tried his best to save the AIADMK, Raajhaa told ThePrint that his voice was not heard. “That’s what forced me to join DMK. I am sure Thalapathy (Stalin) would become the chief minister once again,” he added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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