Chennai: With the AIADMK-DMDK alliance stuck in a tug of war, the Vijayakanth-led party has announced that it will start issuing application forms for all 40 seats from 24 February for candidates who wish to contest in the general elections. It signals that the party is ready to face the general elections alone.
Sources in the AIADMK have said the DMDK was offered three LS seats and their offer stands. However, the DMDK remains adamant in its demand to at least match the number of seats offered to PMK (7).
The AIADMK’s counter-argument is that when DMDK contested the 2014 general election in 14 parliamentary constituencies (covering 84 Assembly seats), it secured 20.8 lakh votes and this reduced substantially to 10.4 lakh votes when it fielded candidates in 106 constituencies in the Assembly polls two years later.
It is common knowledge that the DMDK was in alliance talks with AIADMK-BJP for the upcoming general elections, but negotiations went south after the AIADMK reportedly refused the seats Vijayakanth’s camp demanded.
BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan said today the DMDK will soon join the AIADMK-BJP alliance. Speaking to reporters in Kanchipuram, she said, “The DMK-Congress alliance is afraid of the AIADMK-BJP-PMK alliance and soon the DMDK will also join it. The DMDK has the ability to get its share of votes without any slippage and will be a value addition to the alliance.”
PREMALATHA SPEAKS TO MEDIA
In a related development, Vijayakanth’s wife, Premalatha told mediapersons outside her house that ‘good news’ about the alliance would be announced in a week’s time.
She said these things cannot be rushed and they would need time to weigh everything before deciding about the issue of alliance. She asked mediapersons not to trouble themselves needless till then.