Hours after a section of AIADMK leaders said the PMK, which walked out of the alliance led by the Dravidian party last week, seemed to favour a “seat adjustment” in at least Chengalpattu for the local bodies elections, party founder S. Ramadoss indicated his disapproval of any “local understanding”.
PMK sources, too, earlier indicated that such an arrangement had been sought in Vellore also.
Insisting that the PMK had given a “wish list” for Chengalpattu, a senior AIADMK leader told The Hindu that the list covered panchayat union wards, too.
However, the PMK’s position would be known only on Monday when the party nominees are expected to file their papers.
The last date for submission of nominations is September 22.
However, reacting to reports that PMK leaders and workers in the districts are having “local understanding”, Dr. Ramadoss late on Sunday uploaded a post on Twitter, which appeared to disapprove of any attempt at such an arrangement. He uploaded an image in which the words, ‘local_under_standing’ were struck off, and he asked, ‘Do you understand?’
Sources in the PMK earlier said that while it was not the official position of their party to have a pact with the AIADMK, there were “murmurs of an understanding” between the cadre of the two parties in Chengalpattu and Vellore districts. They added that these “decisions” were made locally.
Party’s reasons
Among the reasons cited by the PMK a week ago for contesting in the local bodies elections alone were the “lack of time” to finalise the alliance and the need for satisfying the demands of the local workers who were “eager to contest”.
On Sunday, the AIADMK and the BJP held talks at the AIADMK headquarters. The senior AIADMK leader said the negotiations were “fruitful”, and for “99% of the seats, an understanding” had been reached.
The AIADMK was represented by former Ministers P. Thangamani and Natham R. Viswanathan and the BJP by State general secretary Karu Nagarajan and ‘Karate’ Thiagarajan.
During the Assembly election, in Chengalpattu district, the AIADMK-led alliance, which included the PMK then, won only in one of the seven constituencies. Its vote share was 37.65%, whereas the DMK-led alliance, which bagged six seats, got 45.5%.
In Vellore, the former, with 44.9% vote share, won only in one of the five constituencies and the latter, with 46.23%, bagged the remaining four seats.
The PMK was allotted only one seat in the two districts — Thiruporur of Chengalpattu district — where it lost to the VCK by less than 2,000 votes.
