AIADMK ally BJP to contest 20 seats in Tamil Nadu elections as part of alliance

BJP will also contest the by-polls to Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat, which it lost in 2019

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday inked the seat-sharing pact with its senior ally, AIADMK, for 20 Assembly seats in the April 6 elections.

The national party will also contest the by-polls to Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat, which it lost in 2019.

The agreement was reached after a week-long negotiations between the BJP and AIADMK. According to the agreement signed between AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami and BJP general secretary C T Ravi and Tamil Nadu state unit president L Murugan, the BJP will contest in 20 assembly constituencies.

The constituencies for the BJP will be announced later. With this, the AIADMK has finalised seat-sharing with two parties as it signed the deal with PMK, an influential party among Vanniyars in north Tamil Nadu, last week.

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The agreement also said the AIADMK will extend support to BJP in the by-elections to Kanyakumari seat. In 2019, Pon Radhakrishnan of BJP lost the seat to H Vasanthakumar of Congress. However, Vasanthakumar died in August 2020 due to Covid-19 infection.