CHENNAI: Though the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu is just 38 days away, political blocs in the state, including the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) and the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), are yet to finalise their seat-sharing arrangements.
While the DMK seems to be finding it hard to accommodate the seat demands of several of its allies, the AIADMK may be delaying the process tactically to give itself the latitude to accommodate parties that may cross over to its side due to possible fallout over sharing of seats in the opposition camps.
Having finalised seat-sharing with Congress, MDMK, IUML, KDMK and MMK, the DMK is slightly ahead of the curve. The ruling party, which began its seat-sharing discussions on February 22, has alloted 28 seats to Congress, four seats to MDMK, and two each to IUML, MMK and KDMK. However, long-time allies CPI, CPM and VCK, and new allies DMDK and MNM, have not been allotted their share of seats yet.
‘Nomination starts on March 30, we have ample time for seat-share talks’
On the other hand, the AIADMK, just a couple of hours before the announcement of the election schedule, constituted a seat-sharing committee comprising four senior leaders — KP Munusamy, Dindigul C Sreenivasan, SP Velumani and B Valarmathi — to hold talks with alliance partners.
A senior AIADMK leader told TNIE that a broad agreement on seat-sharing had already been reached among the NDA allies. However, considering the “political permutations and combinations” that might emerge due to the delay in finalising of seats in the DMK camp, the NDA is inclined to adopt a “wait-and-watch” approach. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami held a two-hour-long discussion with BJP’s chief political strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on March 2 but did not divulge the details of the meeting. When asked about the status of seat-sharing, Palaniswami said there is ample time for talks, as nominations start only on March 30. He expressed confidence that the seat-sharing process within the AIADMK-led alliance will be smooth.
The newly-launched Vijay’s TVK held a meeting of its district secretaries on Friday and sought their opinion on the possibility of entering into an alliance without naming any party. Although there has been speculation that TVK might explore an alliance with the NDA — which could, in turn, delay seat-sharing discussions among alliance partners — leaders from the AIADMK and BJP have denied holding any talks with Vijay’s party.
“Till this time, neither the AIADMK nor leaders of its alliance parties have held any talks with the party you mentioned. So, the question of this leader joining us does not arise,” Palaniswami told reporters on Sunday after hosting an Iftar party on behalf of the AIADMK. Palaniswami was flanked by BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran and AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran. Meanwhile, when asked whether there was any possibility of more parties joining the NDA, Palaniswami replied in the affirmative.