AIADMK, allies nearly finalise seat choices, campaign from Friday

The AIADMK which is also in talks with the former union minister GK Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) is likely to clinch the deal by Wednesday. The AIADMK leadership wants the TMC to contest from Thanjavur.

TMC founder Vasan told reporters on Tuesday that the alliance talks with the AIADMK was progressing and said that the good news in this regard will come soon. TMC had also applied to the EC seeking bicycle symbol, Vasan said. It may be noted that late Congress leader GK Moopanar popularised the bicycle symbol when the TMC was floated in 1996.

The BJP had also submitted its preferred seats as Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and is also looking for seats in Western Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK is ready to give seats like The Nilgiris and Central Chennai but alliance partners are not keen on both these seats, confidential sources said.

“The AIADMK leaders and parliamentary board members are now getting the ground reality from the local district secretaries and are weighing the winning probability of its candidates,” an informed senior AIADMK functionary told DT Next. Seats like Karur, Salem, Madurai, Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore are preferred and the AIADMK will retain the seats in Kongu region sacrificing a few for the alliance partners.

In the case of PMK, seven seats had been allocated and of these five seats asked by the party will be given and two will be choice of AIADMK. PMK will contest mostly in north Tamil Nadu and will retain the Dharmapuri seat represented by PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, the source explained. Seats like Arakkonam, Cuddalore, Chidambaram and Tiruvallur are up for the alliance partners and the overall seat sharing process will conclude by Thursday and the final list of candidates will be out by Friday.

Meanwhile, the AIADMK has planned to kick-start its campaign from Friday and the party seniors O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami are likely to cover the entire state in two phases. BJP leaders and PMK leader Ramadoss will also take part in a few mega rallies and public meetings in tier-one cities.

After awarding seven seats to the PMK, five seats to BJP, four to DMDK and four to minor parties, the AIADMK will contest in the balance 20 seats covering the state and Puducherry.