The DMK on Friday successfully concluded seat-sharing talks with its allies for the May 16 election to Tamil Nadu Assembly. leaders of the Muslim league and the Dalit outfit Puthiya Thamizhagam signed the pacts for seat-sharing with DMK chief Karunanidhi on Friday. While the Muslim league was allotted five seats, the PT was given four seats.
The DMK had on Thursday finalised the discussion with the Congress, which was allotted 41 seats. The DMK would contest 176 seats while its allies have been given 58 seats.
The electoral battle for Tamil Nadu will enter “mission mode” on Saturday with AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa set to sound the war cry from Chennai’s famous Island Ground. She will introduce all the party candidates contesting from the city and suburbs. From Monday, Jayalalithaa’s campaign vehicle will be criss-crossing the State.
In an interesting development, the Opposition DMK will focus more on the RK Nagar constituency from where Jayalalithaa is seeking re-election, according to MK Stalin, the party treasurer. “I am personally leading the campaign against Jayalalithaa. During the bypoll held there last June, Jayalalithaa campaigned in the constituency just for a day and she did not get out of the vehicle even once. I will undertake house-to-house campaign in RK Nagar constituency,” disclosed Stalin to reporters.
The Congress has come under attack from its own leaders for “surrendering” winnable seats to the DMK. Jothimani, a senior Congress leader lashed out at EVKS Elangovan for giving away a constituency from where she has been actively campaigning for the last one year. The Congress will come under more attack as Naam Tamilar, a Tamil chauvinist organisation, which is contesting all the 234 constituencies, announced on Friday that the party would give “special attention” in the constituencies from where the Congress candidates would be contesting.
“The Congress is responsible for the state of affairs in Sri lanka as well as in Tamil Nadu. We had campaigned actively against the Congress in the 2011 Assembly election and saw to it that the party candidates were defeated in all the constituencies. This time too we will actively campaign against the Congress candidates,” said Seeman Sebastain, chief of Naam Tamilar.