Left seals poll pact with AIADMK

While the CPI was lucky to retain its share of 10 seats out of a total of 234 Assembly seats in the State, the CPM had to contend with  12 seats, one less than the seats they were allotted in the DMK-led front in the 2006 elections. The CPI had contested the same number of seats in the 2006 elections as part of the DMK-led front.

 The deal was signed after the AIADMK came forward on Sunday night to offer a seat extra to each of the Left parties to break the deadlock.  Even as the DMK-Congress-PMK combine was polishing off its seat-sharing pacts, in quick succession,  CPI and CPM leaders led by D Pandiyan and G Ramakrishnan met Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence and finalised the agreement. The constituencies earmarked for the Left parties will be announced on Tuesday.
The CPM which took a more strident line, pitching their demands at 18 seats when Amma’s last offer was just 11 seats, eventually came around on Monday after CPI decided to accept the ten-seat offer.

Asked whether the CPM at least expected a parity with the 2006 level of 13 seats, CPM leader T K  Rangarajan said: “Last time it was a different (political) grouping and the situation was different. Now, our objective is to put an end to the ‘misrule’ of the DMK-Congress combine, both at the Centre and in the state.”

The 2G scam, price rise and power shortage in the state would  be the main poll issues, he added. With the AIADMK having already allotted 41 seats to the actor Vijayakant-founded DMDK and has earmarked 11 seats for a host of smaller parties in their alliance, it is the MDMK’s situation which is extremely precarious now.
The MDMK, as part of the AIADMK-led front in the 2006 Assembly polls was given 35 seats. But this time, Vaiko is not even sure whether Jayalalitha will allocate even half that number to his party. The MDMK won six of the 35 seats it had contested in the last Assembly polls, but at the end of five years, three of their members had already defected to the DMK, dwelling a severe blow to Vaiko in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Dravidar Kazhagam led by K Veeramani, at its general council meeting in Chennai on Monday, vowed to support the DMK-Congress-PMK alliance.