AIADMK ministers begin alliance talks with PMK

According to informed AIADMK sources, the meeting with the PMK leader is still at the preliminary stage and the second round of alliance talks will commence after Pongal holidays, sources said. 

The Ministers were briefed by the party leaders Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam ahead of the meeting and the seat-sharing talks are likely to be finalised by the mid of next month so that the NDA alliance parties will have two months for the election campaign works. 

However, PMK founder Dr Ramadoss in a tweet denied that the PMK and AIADMK discussed the alliance. Admitting that the Ministers met him at his Thailapuram residence, Ramadoss said that the alliance talks will be taken up with the AIADMK only if the PMK’s long-standing demand of reservation for Vanniyars is accepted. We discussed issues related to Vanniyar’s reservation and politics was not discussed. The Ministers have agreed to resume talks after Pongal, Ramadoss tweeted. 

The public election department also pepped up the election arrangement works and Chief Electoral Officer Sathyabrata Sahoo met the state and central government agency officials to discuss the implementation of model code of conduct. Officials from Income Tax, Central excise, Reserve Bank and state prohibition enforcement wing attended the meeting at the state Secretariat. Monitoring of cash flow and election expenditures by political parties were discussed during the meeting.