The PMK, a constituent of the NDA, on Friday announced that it would contest the lone Puducherry LS seat, even as the local unit of BJP claimed that the seat had been allotted to the All India NR Congress (AINRC).
The organising secretary of the local unit of PMK and former MLA, R K R Anantharaman, who had earlier been nominated by his party to contest the seat, told a press conference on Friday that he was the nominee in the alliance and was going ahead with the poll campaign, which he began in February. He said he would not go back on his decision to contest the seat.
Reacting to this, the BJP claimed that Anantharaman’s decision was causing unnecessary confusion, embarrassment and chaos. “There is no ambiguity over the issue. A decision was taken to allot the seat to the AINRC, after the party was welcomed into the alliance by the party‘s national president, Rajnath Singh when Chief Minister N Rangasamy met him in Chennai. Rajnath Singh had announced allotment of the seat to AINRC at a separate meeting with Rangasamy in Chennai on Thursday,” BJP Puducherry unit president M Visweswaran said.
The BJP and the AINRC office bearers reportedly held a meeting in the BJP party office at noon and discussed strategies to face the poll.