Jaya grabs the lions share in TN

CHENNAI, JAN 19: The All India Anna DMK(J) will contest 23 seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, while its allies, the Bharatiya Jan...

CHENNAI, JAN 19: The All India Anna DMK(J) will contest 23 seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, while its allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party, MDMK, PMK, Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress and the Janata Party will contest the remaining 17 seats as part of the alliance for 40 constituencies including the Union Territory of Pondicherry, AIADMK(J) general secretary and former Chief Minister J.Jayalalitha announced on Monday.

Addressing a media conference at the party headquarters in Chennai, she set at rest speculation about the number of constituencies allotted to the allies by declaring that the BJP, MDMK and PMK will contest five seats each. The Janata Party of Subramanian Swamy and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress led by Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy will contest one seat each, Madurai and Salem respectively.

The BJP will contest the Nagercoil, Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tiruchi and South Chennai seats, while the PMK will field candidates at Dharmapuri, Vandavasi, Chidambaram, Vellore and Mayiladuthurai. The MDMK will contest from Sivakasi, Palani, Thanjavur, Tindivanam and North Chennai.

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Denying that there were any hitches in the seat-sharing talks, Jayalalitha said that the negotiations with her allies had been smooth and “absolutely cordial”. Reports of strains in seat-sharing talks with the MDMK were only media-created, she charged.

“We have tried our best to accommodate all sections in the party,” she replied to a question. There were 669 aspirants for the 40 Parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry and the three Tamil Nadu Assembly by-elections. “This is normal in every election,” she remarked, adding that the high number of aspirants only showed their confidence in their party winning the elections,” she added.

She disclosed that she had invited BJP leaders A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani to address a rally at Chennai on Feb 1 when the front hopes to launch its joint election campaign. The party’s election manifesto would be released on Jan 30.

Among the high-profile AIADMK candidates are former Assembly speaker and party treasurer, Sedapatti R. Muthiah (Periakulam), former deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and party propaganda secretary M. Thambidurai (Karur), former ministers V. Sathiamoorthy (Ramanathapuram), K. Kalimuthu (Sivaganga), D. Jayakumar (Central Chennai) and M.C. Damodaran (Cuddalore).

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Actor Ramarajan, the party’s former propaganda secretary who fell out with Jayalalitha before the last general elections but had returned to her fold now, will contest from the Tiruchendur Parliamentary constituency on an AIADMK ticket.