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A day after sealing its pre-poll deal with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the BJP on Tuesday concluded a deal with the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
While the BJP has been allotted five Lok Sabha seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has been given seven seats in Lok Sabha and one in Rajya Sabha. Talks are on with another regional party, the DMDK, and its outcome will decide the number of seats that the AIADMK will contest. For now, it has 27 seats at its disposal.
A few more parties are likely to join in.
While the first half of the day witnessed the conclusion of a deal between the AIADMK and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the second half saw heightened discussions between AIADMK and BJP leaders, leading to a formal announcement on the alliance.
By firming up the alliance with the BJP and others, the AIADMK has taken a clear lead over its arch rival DMK, which is still negotiating alliance with the Congress and a few other parties.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who was in Chennai on Tuesday, held negotiations with the AIADMK and others for a pre-poll alliance.
In the evening, AIADMK’s coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, in the presence of Goyal, the party’s co-coordinator and Chief Minister Edappadi Ramaswami and other top leaders from both the parties, said the AIADMK and the BJP had sealed a deal to fight the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as one big alliance.
“This alliance in Tamil Nadu will strengthen the NDA at the Centre and the alliance hopes to emerge victorious in all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu (39) and Puducherry (1),” said Goyal.
After a lot of dilly-dallying, the PMK, which was also reported to be negotiating with the DMK, said a few hours before the announcement on the AIADMK-BJP tie-up, that it had decided to join the AIADMK alliance to contest the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
It now appears that Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu will be fought between two large alliances — one headed by the AIADMK and the other by the DMK, with the BJP and the Congress as junior partners.
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