All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader D Jayakumar said the party will be forced to rethink its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party if its state chief K Annamalai is not restrained, PTI reported.

The statement came after Annamalai said earlier this week that Tamil Nadu has become one of the most corrupt states in the country and that former chief ministers were convicted in corruption cases, The New Indian Express reported. He appeared to have been referring to former Chief Minister and AIADMK matriarch J Jayalalithaa, who died in 2016.

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The former AIADMK general secretary was convicted by a Karnataka court in a disproportionate assets case in 2014, but the High Court set aside the verdict in 2015.

Jayakumar, a former state minister, on Monday alleged that Annamalai was trying to create confusion in the alliance and asked whether the BJP’s central leadership approved of his actions.

“Is it Annamalai’s intention to see that the AIADMK-BJP alliance does not win a seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and that Narendra Modi should not become prime minister again?” the AIADMK leader asked. “Are not his activities oriented in this direction?”

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Jayakumar asked why Annamalai was silent on corruption allegations against the BJP that were raised during the Karnataka Assembly election campaign. The BJP leader was the poll co-incharge for the party in Karnataka. The saffron party could manage to win only 66 seats in the 224-member Assembly and was defeated by the Congress in the polls.

The AIADMK leader said that the BJP had representation in Tamil Nadu only because of support from his party. “After a gap of 20 years, the BJP made an entry into the state Assembly with four MLAs today because of the AIADMK,” he said. “Will Annamalai deny this?”

Responding to Jayakumar’s statement, the BJP state vice president Karu Nagarajan said that there is no room for a “big brother attitude” in the party’s alliance with the AIADMK, reported The New Indian Express.

“Jayakumar is cutting the bottom of the tree sitting on its edge,” the BJP leader. “His remarks would only affect the AIADMK. Alliance means all coming together.”