Chennai: With just a few days left for formal announcement of Lok Sabha polls, the battle lines are almost drawn in Tamilnadu. Surprisingly after seat sharing deal with alliance partners, both DMK and AIADMK are left with very few seats to contest.
To put it straight, of the 40, DMK will be contesting in 20, while AIADMK will field candidates in 20 seats if DMDK and TMC comes to their fold. The likes of VCK and Left parties getting two seats in DMK combines and seven for PMK in AIADMK fold has surprised many. Why a sudden concession for smaller parties?
Speaking about the seat sharing formula, a DMK leader says, ‘We have always maintained the same in the past. Even when there was a string wave in support of DMK in 2004, DMK chose to contest in just 15 seats. We have a different approach for Assembly elections and Lok Sabha polls.’ ‘We have managed a grand alliance thanks to Congress, VCK, Left parties, MDMK, IJK, Muslim League and Kongu party. Our one point agenda is to defeat the communal BJP and whoever shares the same vision have been accommodated in our alliance,’ he adds.
On the other side, AIADMK has PMK, BJP, Puthiya Thamizhagam, New Justice Party and NR Congress. ‘We have fielded a strong alliance and victory is ours’, said State Minister and AIADMK leader D Jayakumar. Political analysts say, ‘AIADMK single-handedly won in 37 seats out of the 40 it contested in the 2014 polls inspite of a strong Modi wave across the nation then. Things have changed a lot ever since former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s demise.
And with AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran proving to be an imminent threat, AIADMK had to accommodate smaller parties into their alliance. Every vote counts. Similarly for DMK, it is an acid test for Stalin as DMK president. Specially after losing deposit in RK Nagar by-poll, he is under immense pressure to get things forward. Giving 10 seats to the Congress besides giving a seat to IJK’s Parivendhar who crossed fence only last week is seen as negatives even by his own cadres.’
| Each vote counts |
| The political situation today made parties even with less than five per cent of vote share seen as a major contributor. Taking this as an advantage, DMDK bargained more seats from DMK and AIADMK, say analysts. |