Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK co-cordinator and Edappadi K. Palaniswami and coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam led the seat-sharing negotiations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with BJP leader and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday night, sources told The Hindu on Friday.
The talks that began around 10:30 p.m. ended by 12:45 a.m. on Friday.
Earlier it was reported that only Electricity Minister Thangamani and Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani negotiated with the BJP delegation.
Mr. Goyal, the BJP election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, had flown down from New Delhi for holding the alliance talks.
Sources said that even before Mr. Goyal arrived at the bungalow of late industrialist Pollachi Mahalingam in Alwarpet, Chennai, both Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam had reached there.
The two Ministers Mr. Thangamani and Mr. Velumani arrived subsequently to give an impression that only they were holding talks on behalf of the AIADMK. In fact after the talks, only Mr. Goyal and his team and the two Ministers left the venue. The CM and his deputy left much after the journalists had moved out.
