It seems that the defeated ADMK -BJP alliance is yet to accept the debacle in the recently-held Tamil Nadu assembly polls. Two months after the elections, the allied parties are now locking horns over who is responsible for the defeat in the polls. The fierce words of exchange between the party leaders had stirred furores and political debate and the mutual blame had sparked a rift in the alliance at a high time when the state is inching closer to the local body polls in nine districts. 

It all started with the remarks of former ADMK minister CVe Shanmugam. Speaking at an event in Vannur, Villupuram district, Shanmugam said that the ADMK had completely lost the minority votes for the party's alliance with the BJP. He said, "We would have come to power once again as the people wanted us to be in power. But the alliance calculation has gone wrong. The minority votes and some other reasons had also contributed to our loss." 

As Shanmugam has directly blamed the BJP for the election defeat, it had stirred controversy, and his remarks had gone viral on social media. Hours after Shanmugam's statement, BJP had strongly hit back against the former ADMK Minister. BJP state general secretary KT Raghavan took to social media and said, "There is an opinion, even in the BJP, that some of the decisions in the ADMK party had led to the defeat of the alliance." 

Raghavan further said, "Former Minister CV Shanmugam has said that the reason for the defeat is BJP, but we should see if this is the view of ADMK. The party's coordinator and joint coordinator hadn't commented in this matter." The BJP leader said that even the success of Prime Minister Modi didn't earn votes in Tamil Nadu because of ADMK's policy decisions in the state. 

By citing that the BJP had won 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and won the state of Uttar Pradesh, where there are Muslims and Christian population, with huge numbers, Raghavan has claimed that it is not right to blame BJP for the defeat of the ADMK in the state assembly polls. The war of words in Tamil Nadu had drawn major political attention and it has displayed the prevalence of political instability in the alliance. 

The remarks of the former ADMK Minister had stirred dispute and invited fierce castigations from the BJP with several BJP leaders including Khushbu had voiced against the ADMK for its drive of holding the Central ruling party accountable for the defeat. The mutual blame had showcased that it is less likely that both the parties will observe alliance and contest in the local body polls in Tamil Nadu in a coalition.

After the tensions had escalated, senior ADMK leader D Jayakumar had maintained that Shanmugam's remarks are his personal and they don't have anything to do with ADMK. Hours after the war of words, ADMK's coordinator Panneerselvam has intervened in the matter, and in his bid to mitigate the tensions between the parties, he said ADMK has full faith in BJP. Panneerselvam said, "ADMK has full faith in Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Considering the interests of the nation and also the welfare of Tamil Nadu, the ADMK-BJP alliance will continue without any second opinion."