The line-up for the April 18 Lok Sabha election, to be held in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for electing 40 law makers, has been finalised. The ruling AIADMK signed the deal with Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) on Wednesday evening. This has, in a way, ended the process of alliance formation for the ensuing election in the State.
As per the agreement signed by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy , Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and Tamil Manila Congress president G K Vasan, the AIADMK would allocate one constituency to the latter in return for the whole hearted support of the TMC to the NDA candidates for the Lok Sabha election and the 21 AIADMK candidates in the by-polls to be held for the vacant assembly constituencies.
The AIADMK has PMK (seven seats), BJP (five), DMDK (four), Puthiya Tamilakam, New Justice Party, All India NR Congress and TMC (one each for the last four) in its front. The DMK-led UPA has the Congress, the CPI(M), the CPI, VCK, Muslim League, IJK, KJK as its alliance partners. While the DMK has almost finalised the allocation of constituencies from where the front partners would contest, the AIADMK leader Panneerselvam said on Thursday that his front would announce the details of constituencies by early next week.
The Tamil Manila Congress is returning to the AIADMK fold after 18 years. The party was born when G K Moopanar, a senior leader came out of the Congress in 1996 in protest against the then Congress President Narasimha Rao’s decision to fight the assembly and parliament election in alliance with the AIADMK. The TMC-DMK combine had swept the 1996 election. But in 2001, Moopanar joined the AIADMK front and contested the assembly election which saw the obliteration of the DMK.
B S Gnanadesikan, former president of the TNCC who quit the party along with Vasan in 2014 told The Pioneer that there was nothing strange in the TMC joining the front consisting of the BJP. “The DMK itself was an ally of the BJP from 1998 to 2004 and was in the council of ministers headed by A B Vajpayee. The Congress leadership should ask itself why we had to come out of the party. The regional leaders of the party do not get any recognition in the party,” said Gnanadesikan who was a two-term Rajya Sabha member.
He also disclosed that there was no issue in the TMC aligning with the BJP. “We will share the stage with them and will campaign along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Gnanadesikan.
Veteran commentators differed in their opinions about the TMC’s decision of joining the AIADMK led front. “It will not make any impact in the prospects of the DMK-led front which is expected to win most of the seats. The AIADMK’s popularity is at its lowest ebb and the BJP’s strategy of exploiting the Hindutwa sentiments would not work in Tamil Nadu,” said Govindarajan Satyamurthy, columnist.
Though Sam Rajappa agreed with Satyamurthy, he was of the view that the ruling party-led front was in for a total rout. “The incidents since the 2016 assembly election are still fresh in the minds of the people. There is strong anti-incumbency feeling against both the Centre and the State governments and it would be reflected in the results,” said Sam Rajappa.