CHENNAI: The AIADMK and DMK, having sealed the deal with their national partners are finalising talks with smaller parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. On Saturday, the Puthiya Thamizhagam (PT) joined the ruling party-led alliance, getting one seat, even as the Indiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK) extended its support to the DMK. IJK founder T R Pachamuthu said they did not want to enter into an alliance (the AIADMK’s) which included the PMK.
PT chief K Krishnasamy signed the seat-sharing agreement with AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and other senior functionaries at the AIADMK headquarters. He said his party would contest on its own symbol, despite reports that the AIADMK wanted the PT candidate to contest on its ‘two leaves’ symbol. He added he had sought the Tenkasi seat.
Panneerselvam said the party would support the AIADMK in the bypolls to 21 Assembly constituencies as well. He said the constituency for PT would be announced later. He added that the ongoing talks with Vijayakanth’s DMDK would reach a “good conclusion” in a day or two.
Talking to reporters after signing the poll pact with AIADMK, Krishnasamy said the government headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had formed a committee comprising senior IAS officers to examine the demand for collectively renaming a few sub-sects as Devendra Kula Vellalars, a long- pending demand of the community.
With this, the AIADMK has apportioned 14 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry out of the 40 to Pattali Makkal Katchi (7), Bharatiya Janata Party (5), All India NR Congress (1) and Puthiya Thamizhagam (1).
DMDK founder Vijaykanth held another round of discussions with party functionaries on Saturday. The AIADMK is keen to complete the alliance talks in a few days as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to start his campaign in Chennai on March 6.
IJK founder TR Pachamuthu met DMK president MK Stalin at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters on Saturday and assured him of his party’s support to the DMK-led alliance in the general elections.
Later, he told reporters, “We have resolved in our party general body meeting last week to support the DMK-led alliance in the coming elections. Tamil Nadu is facing various problems and a change is required on various fronts. In this situation, Stalin is the only leader who can bring the change in Tamil Nadu and he alone can protect the rights of the State. Hence, we have extended our support to the DMK-led alliance,”
Pachamuthu said.
“The Pattali Makkal Katchi is constantly abusing our medical college (SRM) and party. Hence, we could not get into a poll pact where PMK is one of the partners,” he added.DMK sources said the leaders of MDMK, VCK, CPI and CPM had been invited for seat-sharing talks on Sunday and DMK too was keen on completing this exercise at the earliest.