The AIADMK leadership, which meekly surrendered to the BJP after Jayalalithaa’s demise, is playing a hard bargain, and has even threatened to refuse an alliance with the saffron party, that is the BJP.

Over the last two years, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu has been perceived as the ‘B’ team of the Bharatiya Janata Party. With no leader of stature to succeed Jayalalithaa (who passed away in December 2016), the AIADMK held on to power in the state, largely because of support from the central government.