CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK has finalised the seat-sharing pact with Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, and has allotted it one Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu to contest, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam said on Saturday.
“According to the agreement entered upon today, it has been decided that Puthiya Tamizhagam would be provided with one Lok Sabha seat under the AIADMK-led alliance. In 2019 bypolls for the 21 vacant legislative Assembly constituencies in the State, it has been decided that Puthiya Tamizhagam would extend its full support to candidates of the AIADMK,” Panneerselvam, who is the AIADMK coordinator, announced.
This is the fourth party to join the AIADMK-BJP alliance which also has Dr. S. Ramadoss’ PMK and NR Congress. The AIADMK is also in talks with Vijayakanth’s DMDK.
The constituency for PT would be announced later, he added. Sources said PT Chief Dr. K. Krishnasamy has been demanding Tenkasi parliamentary constituency.
With this, the AIADMK has apportioned 14 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry out of 40 - PMK: 7, BJP: 5, NR Congress and PT 1 each. The ruling party would contest from 26 seats.
Dr. K Krishnasamy who visited AIADMK headquarters and signed the seat-sharing agreement with party coordinator O. Panneerselvam and other senior functionaries, clarified that his party would contest on its own symbol and not on the Two Leaves symbol of the AIADMK. So far, there have been reports that the AIADMK was insisting that the PT candidate should contest on Two Leaves symbol.
“I am happy to announce that Puthiya Tamizhagam has entered into a grand winning alliance led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah at the national level and Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and dear brother O. Panneerselvam at the state level,” Dr. Krishnaswamy said. Though Dr. Krishnaswamy is expected to contest, he claimed that the candidate for the constituency would be announced shortly.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Panneerselvam said the alliance talks with DMDK would be concluded in a day or two. The AIADMK is keen to complete the alliance talks within a couple of days since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to launch his campaign in Chennai on March 6.
