Tamil Nadu Polls: AIADMK Announces Seat-Sharing With Key Allies

The AIADMK on Monday sealed a seat-sharing arrangement with three key NDA allies ahead of the April 23 Assembly elections.

It was announced by party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the presence of BJP leader Piyush Goyal, PMK’s R. Anbumani and AMMK founder T.T.V. Dhinakaran that the BJP will contest 27 seats, the PMK 18, and the AMMK 11.

With the Tamil Nadu Assembly comprising 234 seats, the allocation leaves 178 constituencies for the AIADMK.
It remains undecided whether smaller allies will contest on their own symbols or those of the AIADMK or the BJP.

However, this is the first time the BJP has been allotted more seats than other AIADMK allies. In the previous election, the AIADMK had given 23 seats to the PMK and 20 to the BJP.

The PMK is currently split between Anbumani Ramadoss and the party's founder, S. Ramadoss.
On the other side, the DMK has finalised its seat-sharing deals with the Congress (28), CPI (5), MDMK (4), IUML (2), MMK (2) and KMDK (2), with some candidates set to contest on the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol.

However, Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin is still in talks with the CPI(M) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.

The announcement came shortly after Union Minister and BJP’s Tamil Nadu election in-charge Piyush Goyal arrived in Chennai to oversee the final round of discussions.

Sources within the party said internal deliberations are ongoing, with leaders seeking to balance accommodating allies with retaining key strongholds.

Alliance talks had recently stalled, mainly over the BJP’s initial demand for more than 50 seats, including key constituencies like T Nagar in Chennai. The AIADMK, however, insisted it could not уступ further without weakening its core electoral base.

The deadlock led Palaniswami to travel to New Delhi last week, where he held talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah before a breakthrough was achieved.
​