AIADMK Finalises NDA Seat-Sharing Deal Ahead Of Crucial Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections

Chennai: The AIADMK on Monday finalised the seat-sharing deal with three key constituents of the NDA for the April 23 Assembly elections. As per an agreement, announced by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami in the presence of BJP leader Piyush Goyal, PMK leader R Anbumani and AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran, the three parties will field candidates in 27, 18 and 11 constituencies respectively.

“We will soon finalise the seat sharing arrangement with the other allies. The AIADMK will secure a majority on its own and form the next Government in Tamil Nadu,” Palaniswami told journalists at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai after signing the deal with the respective leaders.

Tamil Nadu Assembly has 234 seats. With this allocation, the AIADMK is left with 178 seats. It has other allies including G K Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress and some sub-regional outfits to take care of. Clarity was yet to emerge on whether candidates of the some of the smaller parties would contest on their own symbols or on borrowed election symbols from the AIADMK or BJP.

For the first time, the BJP has been allotted more seats than the other allies in the AIADMK. In the last Assembly elections, the AIADMK had allotted 23 seats to the PMK and 20 to the BJP. However, now the PMK is split between Anbumani and his father and party founder S Ramadoss following an estrangement.

Meanwhile, the rival DMK has so far finalised seat sharing deals with the Congress (28), CPI (5), MDMK (4), IUML (2), MMK (2) and KMDK (2). Some of the candidates of the smaller parties would be contesting on the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol.

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DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin, however, is trying to sort out issues with the CPI-M and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. He has offered five seats to the CPI-M but the party is insisting on six. After hard bargaining that stretched over several days, the Marxists are expected to come to terms with contesting in only five seats. The VCK may settle for six or seven seats, contrary to its expectations of 10 seats.

The DMK leadership has managed to curtail the seats of its smaller allies compared to the previous election where it had allotted six seats each to the CPI, CPI-M, VCK and MDMK.

The ruling party also has to sort out issues with Kamal Haasan’s MNM. It is yet to disclose how many seats it has decided to give late Vijayakant’s DMDK.