AIADMK signs eighth seat-sharing pacts

The deal was signed after the representatives of TNKYF met AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa at her residence here. The AIADMK Thursday beefed up its star power allotting two seats to SMK, a largely Nadar community party, floated by actor-turned-politician R. Sarathkumar.

Sarathkumar is the third film hero to have entered the AIADMK fold after Vijayakant whose DMDK has got 41 seats to contest in the polls and M. Karthik, a Thevar, whose party NMK has announced support to Jayalalithaa.  One more action hero likely to extend support to AIADMK is C. Vijay who toyed with the idea of joining the Congress last year and also met Rahul Gandhi in 2009.

Till date, the AIADMK has reached agreement with eight parties for 52 of the total 234 seats in the state assembly, allotting 41 to DMDK, two each to the PT and the SMK, three to the MNMK and one each to the Republican Party of India, the Forward Bloc and the AIMMK.

It is yet to finalise the seat sharing details with the two left parties - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) - and its long time ally, MDMK led by Vaiko.