The AIADMK on Friday held discussions with seven parties to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement for the urban local bodies elections.
The parties included the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar), led by G.K.Vasan; the Puratchi Bharatham, led by Kilvaithinankuppam MLA Jagan Moorthy; and the Samuga Samuthuva Padai, led by former IAS officer P. Sivakami.
However, no representative came from the BJP, which faced the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the subsequent rural local bodies elections, apart from the 2021 Assembly election and another round of the rural local bodies elections, in alliance with the AIADMK.
Two AIADMK leaders said the initiative for the discussions came from the smaller parties because party coordinator O. Panneerselvam and co-coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami were in the city to hold an inner-party meeting.
If any agreement was clinched, it would be based on local conditions. No number of seats would be fixed in advance. At the district level, the party functionaries had short-listed candidates and forwarded the lists to the headquarters for clearance. The lists would be released in a few days, the leaders added.
Briefing reporters after the two-hour meeting, organisation secretary D. Jayakumar, replying to a question on the party’s candidates for the post of mayors, said the question did not arise at all as there would be an indirect system of election for the post.
Asked whether he considered the absence of the PMK a loss to his party, he replied that if others joined hands with his party, “everyone will benefit. This applies to all”.
It was learnt that Ms. Sivakami sought 12 wards in the municipal corporations of Chennai, Avadi, Tambaram and Kancheepuram, besides the municipality of Uthiramerur. She also expressed her desire to contest from a ward in Chennai.
BJP non-committal
The BJP leadership in Tamil Nadu remained non-committal on its alliance with the AIADMK for the urban local bodies elections, with senior leader Pon. Radhakrishnan saying on Friday that president K. Annamalai was empowered to take a decision.
“Mr. Annamalai has been given the power to decide on the alliance with the AIADMK. We are not ready to talk about it now as we have our interview process to select candidates. We cannot think about the alliance now,” he said after a meeting of the party members to discuss the preparations.
Tamil Nadu co-in-charge Sudhakar Reddy said, “As a political party, we are getting ready to face the election. They [the AIADMK] are part of the NDA. You will come to know within a couple of days [about the alliance]”.
‘Started preparations’
Mr. Radhakrishnan said the party had started its poll preparations two months ago and would interview candidates over the next two days. Then, Mr. Annamalai would announce the candidates. The selected candidates would start filing nominations after January 31.
He refused to answer the question of alliance even while the AIADMK entered into talks with the Tamil Maanila Congress.
The relationship between the two parties is under strain following remarks made by BJP MLA and former AIADMK leader Nainar Nagenthiran against the AIADMK during a protest to seek justice for a girl student who died in Thanjavur district.
