As long as AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the Chief Ministerial candidate of the NDA in Tamil Nadu, there was no chance for reconsidering his decision to rejoin the alliance, AMMK founder T.T.V. Dhinakaran said on Wednesday.During a press conference in Chennai, he also confirmed his meeting with BJP leader and its former State unit president K. Annamalai. Mr. Dhinakaran said that he met him after he intimated about his meeting in advance.“Whatever he told the media that we spoke is what we spoke. As friends, we spoke for an hour. There is no need to talk only about politics just because we are in politics. We spoke about a lot of things. He said he was going to Kerala and then to Sri Lanka,” Mr. Dhinakaran told reporters, replying to a query.As for contentions in what capacity and authority Mr. Annamalai met him, Mr. Dhinakaran said: “That is their opinion. But it was only when he was the BJP’s State president, he was in touch for over four-five months, he brought us into the alliance. It was because of his efforts, the AMMK joined the alliance.”Mr. Dhinakaran said he was regularly in touch with Mr. Annamalai over the phone. Recalling his conversations with Mr. Annamalai when he said that the AMMK founder should not make decisions in haste, Mr. Dhinakaran said: “That is what he repeated again”.As for criticism that Mr. Dhinakaran accepted Mr. Palaniswami for the 2021 Assembly polls but was against him now, he said he was also against Mr. Palaniswami as the CM candidate back then. Only because he was requested by some senior leaders, he had accepted Palaniswami’s leadership. Published - September 24, 2025 07:29 pm IST