In 2-For-1 Deal, Alliance With AIADMK Also Strengthens BJP In Rajya Sabha

New Delhi:

The renewed BJP-AIADMK alliance in Tamil Nadu – announced Friday evening by Home Minister Amit Shah, with ex-Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami by his side – gives the former a premade political platform, i.e., access to an established cadre and voter base before next year’s state election.

How effective that platform will be – given the margin of victory the ruling DMK-Congress alliance enjoyed in the 2021 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections – is not clear, particularly since the BJP has historically struggled in a state that rejects its muscular brand of nationalism.

But, and perhaps more crucially, it also gives the BJP a boost in the Rajya Sabha, because it can now count on the AIADMK’s four MPs and this gives it a mathematical edge in the Upper House and, by extension, a stranglehold on Parliament.

The BJP-led coalition already enjoys a brute majority in the Lok Sabha and is now set to control the Rajya Sabha too, meaning the passage of bills – particularly controversial ones like the ‘one nation, one election’ bill expected in the next Parliament session – should be much easier.