Chennai: At a time when parties in the Opposition are protesting and stalling proceedings in the Parliament over indictment against Gautam Adani and others in the US, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu has chosen to remain silent.
Tamil Nadu was one of the states where, according to the indictment by the US Department of Justice, the Adani Group had allegedly promised bribes to government officials to secure power supply contracts.
V. Senthil Balaji, the state’s electricity minister, has denied any direct links with the Adani Group, saying that the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and the state government had entered an agreement with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in September 2021, when the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was in power.
DMK spokesperson Saravana Annadurai claimed that it was former chief minister and late J. Jayalalithaa, who had signed a power agreement with the Adani Group directly back in January 2015, under the AIADMK regime.
Political watchers in the state point to the business ties that the AIADMK government shared with the conglomerate, when the party was in power between 2011 and 2021.
“It was during the AIADMK period that the Adani Group launched its first ever solar power plant in Kamudhi of Ramanathapuram district, from which the government purchased power at Rs 7 per unit. Apart from that, people in AIADMK may not be aware of the US court details, and there are very few people who can dig out information and speak about it,” said commentator P. Sigamani.
However, according to another expert, N. Sathiya Moorthy, corruption has never been an election issue in the state, at least for the last three decades. “Had it been an issue, AIADMK would not have won the 2001 assembly polls after Jayalalithaa was convicted by the lower courts in the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation(TANSI) land acquisition case,” he said.
ThePrint approached former electricity ministers in the AIADMK government, P. Thangamani (2016-2021) and Natham Vishwanatham (2011-2016), via phone call for a comment on the allegations of bribery, but both refused to comment on the issue.
In 2016, the Adani Group first launched the “world’s largest solar power plant” in Tamil Nadu, when the AIADMK was in power. The project with an installed capacity of 648 megawatt (MW) was commissioned by Jayalalithaa at Kamudhi in Ramanathapuram. The then government had reportedly agreed to purchase solar power at Rs 7.01 per unit from the plant.
Back then, DMK, which was in the Opposition, had demanded a white paper on the solar power agreement with Adani, since it had offered to supply power at Rs 6.04 per unit to Madhya Pradesh.
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‘Lost opportunity’
With less than 18 months to go for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK’s lackadaisical reaction to the issue is being viewed by political commentators as a lost opportunity to boost the party members’ morale.
“If AIADMK does not even react to such issues, it would be difficult for the party to revive itself and put up a decent fight in the 2026 assembly election,” said expert A. Mani.
Some AIADMK leaders and functionaries told ThePrint, on the condition of anonymity, that the party’s hesitation to speak on the matter is because of the relationship shared by the party’s senior leaders with several other business groups.
“We do not know whether they still have business deals with them, but that is what is largely stopping us from commenting on the issue. If we comment on it, our ties with businessmen will also be raked up,” a senior AIADMK leader in southern Tamil Nadu said.
The leader also recalled how AIADMK had criticised DMK in April this year for accepting Rs 500 crore from the lottery king Santiago Martin’s Future Gamings and Hotel Services via electoral bonds. “It is because we do not have any ties with the lottery king. It was the AIADMK government that had banned the lottery in Tamil Nadu, so we were confident about commenting on it,” the leader said.
However, some former AIADMK leaders, who had exited the party rejecting Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s leadership, claimed that the party’s general secretary is scared of the DMK government with respect to corruption-related issues.
Marudhu Azhaguraj, former AIADMK spokesperson and former editor of party mouthpieces Namadhu Amma and Namadhu MGR, said that the Palaniswami has never spoken about corruption allegations against the DMK government.
“DMK is in power. EPS is scared that if he speaks about corruption, DMK will dig up all the cases against him. If DMK can file a case against so many ministers, it can also file one case against EPS. By being silent, he is favouring the DMK government,” Azhaguraj alleged.
But commentator Moorthy said that AIADMK’s silence and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s reaction imply that there is more than what meets the eye.
On Monday, responding to a question by media persons about Pattali Makkal Katchi president Anbumani Ramadoss’s allegation that Stalin and Gautam Adani held a secret meeting in Chennai, the chief minister said that it was not necessary for him to react to the allegations.
PMK has been the only party in the state talking about the power purchasing issue.
Moorthy said that it is unusual for Stalin to react like this to Ramadoss, since the chief minister is known for his political decency. “If he is responding so angrily, then there is something which we are unable to see. On the other hand, AIADMK’s silence should also be noted. It gives us the impression that something was wrong even during AIADMK’s time,” Moorthy said.
The allegations against Tamil Nadu government
According to documents submitted in a US court, Tamil Nadu entered into a Purchase Sale Agreement (PSA) with SECI after allegedly being promised bribes by the Adani Group. Minister Senthil Balaji, however, said that the DMK government purchased about 1500 MW of solar power from SECI to meet the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) of the state government.
A senior official in the electricity department told ThePrint that allegations pertaining to the solar power purchase were “completely baseless”, since the state government follows a rigorous process before proceeding with such agreements.
“There was an RPO, so we decided to purchase. Also, ever since the corruption allegations around coal purchase came up, the department has been following a stringent process with respect to purchase of powers. There cannot be any malpractice with the help of one-two officials,” the official said.
This is not the first time that the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) and Adani Group have been linked in connection to corruption and bribery allegations.
In August 2018, Chennai-based NGO Arappor Iyakkam had filed a complaint with Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, alleging corruption to the tune of Rs 6,066 crore between 2012 and 2016 in the import of coal involving TANGEDCO, Adani Group executives and others. In June this year, an FIR was lodged accusing TANGEDCO of procuring poor quality of coal.
Six years ago, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had also flagged that the Adani group had overcharged TANGEDCO by supplying lower quality coal. According to CAG’s estimates, an excess payment of Rs 813 crores was made with regard to coal imports between 2012 and 2016.
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