Chennai: The ruling AIADMK and the main opposition DMK, the two big parties of Tamilnadu, are caught in a Catch-22 situation, so to speak, ahead of elections to rural local bodies.
The reason, according to sources in both the camps, is that their alliance partners have placed ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unreasonable’ demands during seat sharing talks.
After Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam, the joint coordinator and coordinator of the AIADMK, respectively, formally began discussions with leaders of alliance parties at the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam headquarters here recently, next level leaders are now continuing the talks.
Says a source, ”the expectations of our partners are huge. If we have to fulfil them, we would be left with very less or no seats to contest. The demands have been conveyed to our leadership and we expect an amicable solution in a day or two.”
As far as the DMK is concerned, the party formally started seat sharing talks with its allies only on Thursday, as it was hoping for the polls to be cancelled by the Supreme Court, courtesy a case filed by it. However, with the apex court giving its nod to the elections, the principal opposition party commenced discussions Thursday and was, no prizes for guessing, stunned by the demands placed by its partners.
”Thalapathy (DMK president M K Stalin) has set up a high-level team which would continue talks and seal the deals in the next couple of days,” says an Arivalayam source.
Filing of nominations to contest in the civic polls in rural areas, barring the recently carved out nine districts, began in 27 districts of Tamilnadu on 9 December. Candidates can file their nominations only till 16 December.
So, with just three more days left for the D-day, all eyes on the AIADMK and the DMK to know how the Dravidian majors are going to satisfy their friends.