New Delhi: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) on Wednesday (July 16) said that there will be no power sharing and he will be the Chief Minister after the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

While speaking at Chidambaram, Palaniswami dismissed questions over Union home minister Amit Shah’s remarks that there would be a “coalition government” in Tamil Nadu if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won the 2026 Assembly elections.

“There will be no power sharing. EPS will be the Chief Minister. The AIADMK will form the government. Period,” said Palaniswami, reported Indian Express.

Later, he told reporters, “You got it wrong. It is not going to be an alliance government, but the alliance will form the government. Who is leading this alliance? The AIADMK. Then who will decide about power sharing? We will take the decision.”

The newspaper cited sources to say that Palaniswami has conveyed to Shah in private that a power-sharing arrangement could be considered in the case of a win, if “at a minimal level”.

At the moment, it is politically harmful for the AIADMK to publicly endorse the idea of a coalition government before the elections, for fear of a backlash from its core Dravidian voter base.

“AIADMK cadres won’t be happy if there is talk of a coalition government. EPS told Shah that while he would convince his party leaders to agree to power-sharing in case of a poll victory, announcing the same prior to elections would be suicidal. The BJP has agreed to this, though some dissonance may have been caused because of how Shah’s statements were interpreted,” a senior state RSS leader told Indian Express.

Earlier, leaders from the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had asked why Shah had stopped short of declaring Palaniswami as the CM candidate, and said this showed the BJP’s lack of confidence in him.

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