A Mad Scramble for BJP Tickets in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Ahead of shortlisting 3 candidates for each of the constituencies that the BJP would be contesting in the Lok Sabha elections in the State, the committee set up for the purpose had a tough time sorting them out since there was an unprecedented mad rush for getting party nominations with one particular seat seeing 63 aspirants filing applications.

BJP State President K Annamalai briefed the media, before leaving for New Delhi with the shortlisted names, from which the final pick would be made by the BJP’s Parliamentary board, on Wednesday when he said that 43 persons had vied for the Kanchipuram seat and 51 for Salem.

It is learnt that of the four sitting BJP MLAs in the State, two of them want to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. Sources said that they see in it a prospect of getting a ministerial berth if they manage to win the Parliament seat. Also 34 BJP members have wanted to give it a try from Central Chennai, traditionally a DMK bastion.

Apart from that, some top BJP leaders are also said to have started the campaign work in their constituencies, hoping that the Parliamentary Board would select them, though the final picture on the coalition in the State has not yet emerged with negotiations still going on with the allies.

The AMMK, led by T T V Dhinakaran, has asked for five seats while the BJP wanted to give only two constituencies and the AIADMK splinter group headed by O Panneerselvam has reportedly refused to contest under the BJP’s ‘Lotus’ symbol, though it might not be allotted more than a couple of seats.

Then, the All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, spearheaded by Sarthkumar announced a tie up with the BJP though details of seat sharing and seat allocation were not immediately available.

The AIADMK that was hitherto struggling to get allies managed to rope in All India Forward Bloc as its State general secretary P V Kathiravan, who is a former MLA, called on AIADMK general secretary Edappadi k Palaniswami and pledged his party’s support to the alliance on Wednesday.

Also the DMDK presidium chairperson Elangovan announced a tie-up with AIADMK for the Lok Sabha polls without giving out details like the number of seats that it contest and from where. The decision came about after continuous talks between the leaders of both parties. Even top AIADMK honchos like S P Velumani and K Thangamani called on DMDK president Premalatha Vijayakanth about five days ago.

Now, the AIADMK is looking forward to finalizing the deal with the PMK, to whom it is now talking to, and also lure the Congress that is bargaining for more seats with its present ally, the DMK. Since the DMK is keen on concluding the alliance talks with all its allies by March 7 when it closes the applications from its own aspirants, the hard bargaining by the Congress and also the VCK has put it in a spot.

Though leaders of all the parties concerned hoped to break the stalemate, both the Congress and the VCK were not climbing down from the present demands. The VCK had refused to meet the DMK’s committee for seat-sharing on two occasions and wanted the party to spell out the number of seats they could offer. Later VCK general secretary had asked to meet DMK president M K Stalin and it looks that it would not take part in talks unless the DMK agrees for three seats, one of it in the general category.

Even the MDMK, headed by Vaiko, is not settling down on the alliance as the DMK wants its lone candidate to contest under the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol. So to take call on the issue, Vaiko had called for a meeting of its top office-bearers in Chennai on Thursday.

The Congress wants nine or ten seats, which the DMK is unable to accede to as it has other allies like the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi and the Tamilar Vazhvurimai Katchi demanding one seat each since they were deprived of it earlier. But with some TNCC leaders and also the national general secretary Ajoy Kumar taking a tough stand in not reducing the numbers.

So if the DMK-led alliance breaks in the state it would have serious ramifications at the national level, weakening the INDIA coalition, besides leading to a major realignment in the State.