Pattali Makkal Katchi party threatens to walk out of BJP-led alliance
Upset over Vanniyar seats being given to DMDK
Chennai: The decision of BJP to allocate four Lok Sabha seats in Vanniyar belt to DMDK and lone Puducherry seat to ANRC seems to have irked the PMK leadership, which threatens to walk out of the alliance. Unhappy over the allocation of seats, sources in PMK said that party founder Dr S. Ramadoss has made a fresh demand for allocation of all the 12 seats including Dharmapuri, Puducherry and Kallakurichi for which it had announced candidates to continue in the saffron party alliance.
PMK chief’s move to declare candidate for the Kallakurichi, Salem and Tiruvannamalai seats allotted to DMDK has pushed the seat sharing talks with the saffron party to a point of no return. The allotment of Cuddalore, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai and Salem seats to DMDK and Puducherry to ANRC by BJP has upset the PMK, which had named candidates for it.
PMK would retain Chidambaram, Arakkonam, Arani, Krishnagiri and Mayiladuthurai. It was also allotted Dharmapuri seat as preferred by it. In return for giving up the five seats, PMK was offered to choose any two seats from Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Karur.
“They have taken away winning seats and given us unwinnable ones. Since October last year, we are campaigning in all the ten seats. After spending our energy and money on the constituencies, they want us to give up. How is it fair?” wondered a senior PMK leader and also a candidate.
Another senior party leader said that in a multi corner contest, his party would be in an advantageous position to win the elections.
“If we go it alone, we will be able to contest in more seats and improve our voter share too,” he said, adding that his party was not bothered about the Lok Sabha polls, its target is 2016 assembly polls.
A senior DMDK leader said that his party has adopted a flexible approach in the seat sharing talks despite the adamant stand of PMK. “We have actually given up good seats like Arani, Arakkonam and Dharmapuri where we polled over a lakh votes in 2009 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.