TN Assembly Election | DMDK leaves AIADMK-BJP alliance after three rounds of talks

After three rounds of unsuccessful seat sharing talks with the AIADMK for the April 6 assembly elections, Desiya Murmapakku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) on Tuesday quit the AIADMK-BJP alliance.

DMDK founder Vijayakanth said in a statement that the two parties could not agree on the number of seats and identify the constituencies. “On [party] The meeting of the District Secretaries was a consensus. Based on that, we have decided to leave the AIADMK-BJP alliance.

“It is Deepawali for DMDK today. AIADMK will lose deposits in every seat. AIADMK leader KP Munusamy served as the sleeper cell of PMK at AIADMK, accusing LK Sudhish, deputy general secretary of the party and brother-in-law of Mr. Vijayakanth.

Although the AIADMK rejected his comments and termed DMDK’s exit as “unfortunate”, some BJP second-line leaders took a soft stance, saying Mr. Vijayakanth should reconsider his decision.

Party Treasurer Premlata Vijayakanth, had all insisted that DMDK should be treated “with respect” and on a par with PMK, which is allotted 23 assembly segments in the coalition. The party had the same stance during the last Lok Sabha elections, when it opposed giving four seats as opposed to seven seats of the PMK.

DMDK originally demanded the same as the 41 seats given in 2011, but climbed to 25 seats and later reduced it to 23.

Party sources said that the AIADMK was not ready to go beyond the 13-15 seats and reportedly said that it would directly fund the candidates.

A willing DMDK candidate from South Tamil Nadu claimed that the DMDK leadership transparently lost the AIADMK’s trust after failing to spend the money fixed for each parliamentary seat.

“The money given by AIADMK to contest elections was not fully utilized. The AIADMK leadership has realized this and has now refused to give any money to the party to contest the elections. Instead, he said he would take care of the expenses himself. This is one of the main reasons why it has not worked, ”he claimed.

Deputy Secretary General of DMDK, b. Parthasarathy, however, denied the charge and insisted that the issue was only about the allocation of seats and not the funding. They told Hindu The decision to leave the alliance was taken by Mr. Vijayakanth himself.

“We could not come to an agreement and our leader decided that we should leave the alliance. What we do next – whether we contest elections alone or join any other coalition, is up to our leader. We will find out according to the time, ”he said.

Later in the day, the DMDK leadership was engaged in discussions with Makkal Nidhi Maim leaders about the possibility of contesting elections simultaneously. DMDK is also reportedly considering contesting the election alone.