Chennai: Even a day after the filing of
nominations opened for April 13 assembly polls began in Tamil
Nadu, the political scene remains unclear, with the AIADMK
still struggling to put the alliance led by it in shape.
On the one hand, the identification of seats to be
contested by DMDK, second largest constituent in the rainbow
alliance, was yet to be completed and on the other, MDMK has
pulled out of the front.
The MDMK withdrew charging the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa
with not having learnt lessons from past experience and still
persisting with her "arrogant ways".
MDMK, a long standing AIADMK ally, refused to accept the
offer of 13 seats and decided not to contest at all.
In the ruling DMK front, seat identification with its
allies had been completed with the party deciding to contest
119 seats, leaving 63 to the Congress, 30 to the PMK, 10 to
VCK, seven to Kongu Nadu Munnetra Katchi, three to IUML and
one each to Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam and Perunthalivar
Makkal Katchi, a nadar community based party.
The DMK has already named its candidates for all the 119
seats, while senior Congress leaders are flocking to New Delhi
to secure party tickets for their followers. Other parties in
the front have already named their candidates.
The AIADMK, which has already released a list of 160
candidates, withdrew it yesterday and said it would come out
with a fresh list tomorrow after its action raised the hackles
of its allies.
Party activists in several places in the state were
protesting against the choice of the nominees, compelling
party supremo Jayalalithaa to have a relook at the list.
Protracted negotiations with actor Vijayakanth`s DMDK had
not yielded results so far as he was said to be firm on
securing at least one seat in every district and in some
particular constituencies.
The talks were going ahead and a result was expected to
emerge only tomorrow. AIADMK had allotted 41 seats to DMDK, 12
to CPI-M, ten to CPI; three to Muslims backed Manitha Neya
Makkal Katchi, two to actor Sharathkumar floated All India
Samuthuva Katchi, one each to All India Moovendar Munnetra
Kazhagam, RPI and Kongu Ilaginar Pervai.
The belligerent attitude of the AIADMK`s allies has
affected Jayalalithaa`s campaign plans, according to which she
was scheduled to have hit the streets on Thursday last itself,
but had to postpone it due to bickering over seat sharing.
As many as 54 candidates including Tamil Nadu ministers
K Anbazhagan and S Palanisamy filed their nominations
yesterday, the opening day.
PTI
