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Jaya
gives Cong-TMC 47 seats
Express News
Service
Picks two
seats for herself even as debate over her eligibility to contest
goes on
Chennai,
April 14: AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalitha today released
the list of the 20 Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies to be contested
by her party. And while the debate about whether she can contest
the elections or not rages on, Jayalalitha announced she would contest
from Aundipatti and Krishnagiri constituencies.
Aundipatti has
always been the fortress of the AIADMK in the past, except in 1996
elections. Jayalalitha’s political mentor MGR was elected from
here when he while he was ailing in the Brooklyn Hospital in the
United States.
Former Union minister of state and former PMK leader Dalit Ezhilmalai
has been allotted Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency. Interestingly,
DMK minister Tamilkudimagan who crossed over to the AIADMK was not
given any seat.
After days of hard bargaining, the AIADMK finalised seat allocation
with TMC-Congress combine, giving it 47 seats in Tamil Nadu. TMC
will contest 30, the Congress 15 and allies two. TMC has been given
only 19 of the 39 seats it holds in the current Assembly. Jayalalitha
has already allotted 10 constituencies to the PMK led by Dr S. Ramadoss.
She also released the names of her party candidates for the Pondicherry
Assembly elections, indicating that the TMC-Congress combine were
no longer a part of the AIADMK-front in the Union territory.
Today’s announcement follows the stalemate between the AIADMK
and the Congress over the question of chief ministership in case
they gained power in Pondicherry. If Jayalalitha’s today’s
announcement is taken as her final say on Pondicherry, the two Left
parties in the alliance have to content themselves with no seats.
Though the CPM has no MLA’s, the CPI won two of the three seats
it had contested for in the last elections.
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