The AIADMK appears to be in no mood to rush through the process of seat sharing with its allies for the Assembly election.
Senior leaders of the ruling party said that the leadership wants to “let the principal Opposition party, DMK, finalise seat-sharing arrangements with its partners first,” even though the AIADMK is not expecting any dramatic change in the composition of its allies.
As of now, the ruling party’s panel, entrusted with the task, has not held any formal meeting, even though its members are discussing likely scenarios informally and individually.
Another reason cited for the AIADMK’s approach is that Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami is attaching priority to the presentation of the vote on account and interim budget in the Assembly. Once this is completed, likely by the end of this month, the attention will naturally turn to the seat-sharing process.
As the party has called for applications from February 24 to March 5, a senior office-bearer said the whole exercise of seat-sharing and identification of candidates was expected to be completed by mid-March.
As existing legislators are naturally expecting re-nomination, what surprised many functionaries is the way the Chief Minister reportedly pulled up district secretaries in Chennai for not having mobilised enough cadre to attend the event that was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over on Sunday.
It remains to be seen whether this episode will have any bearing on the selection of candidates in constituencies in Chennai, a veteran office-bearer said.
