TN local body polls: Will the AIADMK-BJP alliance continue?

Seat-sharing talks between AIADMK and its alliance partner BJP for the urban local body elections in Tamil Nadu are “deadlocked” due to a “huge gap” between the number of seats demanded by the national party and those offered by the regional outfit.

Even as both parties maintained that the talks were continuing, the AIADMK released its first list of candidates for nearly 300 wards of municipalities in Cuddalore and Dharmapuri districts. The move led to intense speculation about the AIADMK and BJP parting ways, for now, and contesting the local body polls alone – there is a view within the saffron party to contest alone to “prove our strength.”

The talks are being held amid visible strain in the relationship between the two political parties in the backdrop of an unsavoury remark on AIADMK MLAs by BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Nainar Nagendran, at a protest meeting last week.

The AIADMK took “strong objection” to the remark forcing state BJP chief K Annamalai to personally express regret to joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami. Besides the recent developments, the AIADMK is under pressure from its district-level office bearers and cadres to just allot a “limited number of seats” to the BJP, which they say, lacks any base in many areas of the state.

Read more: Defeat BJP’s communal politics in local body polls: Stalin tells DMK cadre

As top brass of the AIADMK and BJP sat across the table to discuss seat sharing on Saturday, there was no agreement on the number or percentage of seats to be offered for the national party. The first round ended in deadlock – the AIADMK leadership continued its internal discussion on Sunday.

While the BJP wanted more number of seats in urban areas where it believes it has a “good base”, the AIADMK is understood to have offered one formula across the state, which comes around 5 to 7 per cent of total seats that go to the polls on February 19.

Palaniswami told reporters on Sunday that the BJP was asking seats where the AIADMK wants to contest, in the first official reaction from his party.

A senior AIADMK leader explained: “The BJP asked for a specific number of seats in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Nagercoil, and in few other places. They feel their party has a considerable base in those places, but we do not agree with their demand. For instance, we are quite strong in Coimbatore and how can we part more seats there? It is impossible.”

When contacted, a BJP leader told DH that the party wants to “prove its base” in the ensuing elections and that was the reason behind the demand. “We can ask for seats only where we feel we can win. We can’t take seats across the state even in places where our party is not strong for now. We hope to resolve the differences,” the BJP leader said.

While the elections to 12,838 seats/wards in 21 corporations, 138 municipalities, and town panchayats will be held in a single phase on February 19, the counting of votes will be taken up on February 22. Almost a fortnight later, the indirect elections for the heads of local bodies will be held on March 4.

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