Even as speculation over a possible DMK-AIADMK alliance to block Vijay’s TVK from forming the government reached fever pitch on Friday, a senior AIADMK leader moved to publicly dismiss the reports — calling the buzz around the two parties joining hands nothing more than rumour.
“DMK-AIADMK ties are only rumours,” AIADMK leader Nirmala Periyasamy told reporters in Chennai on Friday afternoon, in a brief statement that was among the first on-record pushbacks from within the AIADMK against the alliance narrative that has dominated political discourse since Thursday night. She additionally said that they are “instructed not to comment on the matter.”
The denial, captured in a PTI video, came hours after reports surfaced, that the DMK had confirmed readiness to extend outside support to an AIADMK-led government while seeking no direct ministerial role.
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VIDEO | Chennai: “DMK-AIADMK ties are only rumours”, says AIADMK leader Nirmala Periyasamy.
(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/ENaONksLqZ
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 8, 2026
Periyasamy’s statement cuts against that narrative — but it also raises questions. She is not the AIADMK’s top decision-maker. That role belongs to party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who late Thursday night met nearly 28 AIADMK MLAs lodged at a Puducherry resort, was elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party, and cryptically told his lawmakers to “wait patiently” as “good things will happen.”
EPS has not personally denied the alliance reports.
The contradiction between Periyasamy’s public denial and EPS’s studied silence is itself a signal of how fluid the situation remains inside the AIADMK. Whether her statement reflects the party’s actual position — or is an attempt to manage public optics while back-channel negotiations continue — is a question Tamil Nadu’s political watchers are actively asking.
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What is clear is that Tamil Nadu’s government formation deadlock, now on day four, has no clean resolution.
TVK’s 108 seats — bolstered by Congress’s 5 — still fall five short of the 118 needed for a majority. The Governor has not issued an invitation to form a gavernement. And the AIADMK, for now, is officially saying nothing has been decided — even as its MLAs remain in a resort 300 kilometres from Chennai.
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