The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have finally sealed a seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly polls. The BJP will contest from 20 seats.
The deal was signed late on Friday night (March 5) by AIADMK Panneerselvam, joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami and BJP general secretary and TN coordinator in-charge C T Ravi and state BJP president L Murugan after several rounds of talks. Union minister and TN election in-charge G Kishan Reddy and state BJP leaders held multiple rounds of negotiations with the ruling party over the last week after BJP’s poll strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held nearly three-hour long talks with AIADMK leaders EPS and OPS last Saturday.
The deal was delayed reportedly due to disagreement over sharing of some seats in the western belt, particularly in Coimbatore district, between both the parties.
The Lok Sabha bypoll ticket for the Kanyakumari constituency has also been given to BJP. The seat fell vacant after the demise of H Vasanthakumar of the Congress because of Covid-19.
AIADMK has already allocated 23 seats to one of its allies, PMK, while it continues to hold talks with other smaller parties, including Vijayakanth’s DMDK. The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 6.
All the 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go to polls in the single phase.The counting of votes will take place on May 2.
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