AIADMK may rejoin NDA, party chief J Jayalalithaa to meet Narendra Modi on Tuesday

NEW DELHI: AIADMK is likely to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance that it quit in 1999. Party supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday when contours of the tie-up will be given final shape.

Sources said Jayalalithaa will meet Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday and discuss the AIADMK's intention to join NDA. Though the BJP-led coalition has enough numbers in the Lok Sabha, the party feels it should have good relations with non-Congress parties to help it pass bills in the Rajya Sabha where the government is in a minority.

AIADMK has 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. In return for this support to BJP in the Upper House, Jayalalithaa is likely to ask for financial assistance for Tamil Nadu, according to sources.

Jaitley had called up Jayalalithaa on Thursday and discussed some of the issues she had mentioned in a letter to Modi after he became PM.

Though Jayalalithaa and Modi have had been on good terms for long, there was a slight hiccup last week when the government extended an invitation to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaka, whom AIADMK is opposed to for war crimes committed against ethnic Tamil minorities in Sri Lanka. Jayalalithaa did not attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 26 in protest.