Rajnath to officially announce seat sharing deal in TN tomorrow

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP's) National President Rajnath Singh to visit Chennai on Tuesday to officially announce Party's seat sharing deal, for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, with its alliance partners in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile there are speculation that PMK, one of BJP's allies in Tamil Nadu, may walk out from the alliance. The speculation started after PMK's Founder Leader S Ramadoss announced candidates for four Lok Sabha seats, giving rise to speculation the party might opt out of the alliance.

Tamil Nadu President, Pon Radhakrishnan said that "today we will take the final decision (on the number of sets which will be allocated to the alliance partners) and it will be conveyed to high command immediately. Tomorrow (March 18th) BJP's National President will make an official announcement at Chennai".

Responding to a question on PMK's announcement of candidates, Radhakrishnan told reporters that the Party dont see it as a problem.

Ramadoss introduced his son and Former Union Health Minister (in the UPA regime) Dr Anbumani Ramadoss for the Dharmapuri seat, while Attur Shanmugam for Kallakurichi, R Arul for Salem, and Ehiroli Manian for Thiruvannamalai at a public meeting in Dharmapuri on Sunday.

It may be noted, reports have stated BJP inked a deal with A Vijayakant-led Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) by allocating 14 seats in the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.

Local media, including Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun TV, have started flashing the 14 constituencies names, which were allocated to DMDK. According to reports, the 14 constituencies includes Thiruvallore, Central Chennai, North Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchi, Nellai, Vilupuram, Cuddalore, Kallakurichi, Thiruvannamalai, Pollachi, Namakkal and Dindugal.

DMDK officially announced candidates for Namakkal, Tiruchi, Tiruvallur (Reserved), Chennai (North) and Madurai. Reports stated that the party also expressed interest in Salem and few other constituencies, for which PMK also expressed interests.

The developments comes at a time, when BJP is trying to form an alliance comprising DMDK, PMK, MDMK and a couple of other parties.

DMDK managed to grab the main opposition chairs at the State Assembly after it won 29 assembly seats in the 2011 Assembly Election, while it contested in 41 sets. The Party managed to grab the chairs, which was traditionally with the Dravidian parties. Till 2011, the state politics was dominated by the two dravidian parties - the J Jayalaithaa-led by AIADMK and M Karunanidhi-led DMK.

During the 2011 assembly elections, AIADMK was voted to power, the party bagged 150 seats, after Karunanidhi's Government, which bagged 23 seats, has handed over the state administration to AIADMK. The DMDK choose to partner with the AIADMK in the 2011 assembly polls.