After several rounds of negotiations, the Left parties and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) arrived at seat-sharing agreements on Monday. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will contest from 12 constituencies and the Communist Party of India (CPI), 10 seats.
After firming up the agreement with AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said: “We will contest from 12 seats. We will work for the victory of the AIADMK alliance.”
T.K. Rangarajan, Rajya Sabha MP and Central Committee member, said the alliance would dislodge the DMK from power and end its “misrule.” Asked if the party was miffed at getting one seat less than in the last Assembly elections, he said the political situation were different then. “This time, we discussed and settled (for 12).”
CPI State unit secretary D. Pandian said that the party would be contesting from 10 seats and supporting the alliance in all other constituencies. The list of the constituencies would be disclosed by Tuesday evening.
Asked if the party was satisfied with 10 seats, Mr. Pandian said that he would be happy when it won all the ten seats.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko was expected to finalise seat sharing with Ms. Jayalalithaa on Monday to enable the AIADMK alliance get into campaign mode. The MDMK had fought the 2006 Assembly elections along with the AIADMK and was allotted 35 seats. With a larger alliance, the AIADMK leadership is unwilling to grant as many seats and has been insisting that Mr. Vaiko settle for less. Mr. Vaiko or his party leaders could not be contacted. Asked about this, the CPI (M) leaders said: “We want everyone to be part of the alliance.”
