09 June, 2025:
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will form the government in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in 2026, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah as he launched an attack on the DMK government for “rising corruption, crimes against women and drug mafia” over the last four years.
Setting the field for the 2026 assembly election, Amit Shah said, the BJP-AIADMK combine will defeat the “corrupt DMK” and form a government in Tamil Nadu. "Though I reside in Delhi, my ears are always tuned to Tamil Nadu," Shah said. “The Chief Minister says, 'Amit Shah cannot defeat the DMK.' Stalin Ji, you are right - I cannot defeat the DMK. But the people of Tamil Nadu can.”
On April 11, Amit Shah announced that the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections together, under the leadership of former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
In a speech full of political messages, Amit Shah said the BJP would make a strong comeback in both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. "The people of Tamil Nadu are waiting to throw out the corrupt DMK regime. In 2026, the BJP rule is certain in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal," Shah said.
The announcement, which revived an alliance that had ended in 2023 after a bitter fallout, has set the stage for a four-way contest in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election — between the DMK-led INDIA bloc, the AIADMK-led NDA, Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi, and actor Vijay’s new party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam.
Speaking at a BJP office bearers' meeting in Madurai, Amit Shah said the 2026 elections are crucial for the BJP-AIADMK alliance and urged party workers to work hard to remove the DMK from power.
“The DMK government has scaled new heights of corruption. The Tasmac liquor scam is worth Rs 39,000 crore. Poor people are dying after consuming illicit liquor due to corruption in the liquor trade,” Shah said, adding, “In southern districts of Tamil Nadu, caste-based violence is being instigated for political gains.”
Further, Shah said the NDA will win in Tamil Nadu in 2026, similar to the victories it had secured in Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra, and New Delhi, and form a government. “Not only in Tamil Nadu, the BJP will secure a victory in West Bengal also in 2026,” he added.
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has won every election in the state since 2019. The NDA hopes to increase its chances by teaming up with its former Dravidian rival, the AIADMK, which last won a state election in 2016.
The AIADMK, which has been in power for years, has not won any election since the death of J. Jayalalithaa in 2016.
This was Amit Shah's second visit to Tamil Nadu since the BJP replaced K. Annamalai with Nainar Nagendran as the state president.
