AIADMK announces alliance with DMDK, PT, SDPI, AIFB; releases first list of candidates
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday announced that his party had roped in the DMDK, the Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the Puratchi Bharatham and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), among others, for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Releasing the first list of candidates, he told reporters that many smaller organisations, too, had expressed support to the AIADMK. The DMDK was allotted five seats — Tiruvallur, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC); Central Chennai; Cuddalore; Thanjavur; and Virudhunagar. The PT and the SDPI were given Tenkasi (SC) and Dindigul.
Asked whether the PMKBJP alliance had caused disappointment, especially as PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the AIADMK’s support a few years ago, Mr. Palaniswami replied in the negative. “The AIADMK is an organisation that stands on its own feet. We are happy irrespective of whether parties come to us for an alliance or not...”
Asked about many new faces in the list, he said they were wellqualified and would raise people’s issues “effectively” in the Lok Sabha if elected. Parrying a question on the electoral prospects of the BJPled alliance, he said that the AIADMK had been in power in the State for about 30 years in total, and in 2014, it recorded a “historic victory”, bagging 37 seats, by going it alone.
Asked if his party had been left alone in the fray, he said: “We are confident of our strength. We are not running the party based on what the social media says. Our alliance is with the people.”
By allocating Tiruvallur to the DMDK, the AIADMK has denied ticket to P. Venugopal, who represented the constituency twice – in 2009 and 2014. One of the aspirants for the seat, which had about 20.6 lakh electors, Dr. Venugopal was not given an opportunity to contest in the 2021 Assembly election as well. Five years ago, he lost to Congress’s K. Jayakumar by a margin of around 3.6 lakh votes. Some sections of the party were surprised over allotting such a big constituency (with respect to electors) to the ally, who bagged only around 2.17% of the votes in the 2019 general election.
In Ramanathapuram, the party has fielded an “outsider”, P. Jayaperumal, the presidium chairman of the Virudhunagar district unit and belongs to Tiruchuli, an Assembly segment that comes under the Lok Sabha constituency. A. Anwhar Raajhaa, who was taken back into the party in August last year, was elected from the constituency in 2014. Five years ago, the seat was given to the BJP, which was its ally then.
By choosing Royapuram Mano for North Chennai, the party has selected a person known as an ‘organiser’ at the grassroots level. Mr. Mano was in the Congress for long, before joining the AIADMK in 2020.