Chennai, March 26 With just a month left for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the battle lines are clearly drawn, and the AIADMK camp is making apparent efforts to gain an early advantage over the ruling DMK bloc by quickly finalizing the seat-sharing agreement, identifying constituencies for itself and allies, and entering campaign mode.
The Edappadi K Palaniswami-led AIADMK, which leads the NDA in Tamil Nadu, will compete with the DMK in certain urban centers considered to be the ruling party's stronghold.
The assembly elections will be held on April 23, with vote counting scheduled for May 4.
Determined to win over 210 out of the 234 Assembly constituencies in the state, the AIADMK has announced that it will contest from 169 seats, leaving the rest to allies, while the DMK has prepared its election machinery for as many as 175 constituencies. For its part, the Stalin-led party has set a target of securing over 200 seats.
The DMK has announced that 'Rising Sun' will be contesting from 175 Assembly segments, indicating that it will include smaller allies that will contest under the ruling party's election symbol.
The AIADMK will compete with the DMK in approximately 13 of the 16 constituencies in Chennai, where prominent figures such as Chief Minister M K Stalin, his son and Deputy CM Udhayanidhi, Health Minister Ma Subramanian, and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister P K Sekar Babu are contesting.
The AIADMK has allocated three seats to its allies while retaining 13 in the city. It has also announced its first list of candidates, with Palaniswami testing his electoral fortunes once again from Edappadi in Salem district, while several former ministers and sitting and ex-MLAs are also in the race.
While Naam Tamilar Katchi, led by Seeman, is contesting in all constituencies, actor-politician Vijay is preparing to announce his TVK party candidates for 234 seats in this high-stakes election.
Vijay, a prominent film star with a large fan following, is likely to launch his campaign this week. Only these two leaders with a film background will compete against the Dravidian majors, which are backed by numerous political parties.
The AIADMK-led NDA includes the BJP, which will contest from 27 seats. PMK will fight from 18 seats, AMMK from 11, TMC (M) from five (on the BJP's Lotus symbol). In addition, the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi will field candidates from two seats, while Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam and Puratchi Bharatham have been allocated one seat each. In total, AIADMK has allocated 65 seats to its allies.
The Dravidian party has retained a significant number of seats, accounting for 169.
Palaniswami finalized the seat-sharing agreement with seven political parties in two days, starting from March 23. On March 25, he announced the constituencies from where the constituents will contest and launched the campaign for the NDA from Mylapore in Chennai, where the BJP is contesting.
In the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, the Congress will contest from 28 seats, DMDK: 10, VCK: 8, left parties: 5 each, and MDMK: 4, with one seat each allocated to SDPI, Mukkulathor Pul Padai Katchi (both contesting in Rising Sun symbol), and Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi. The party has also allocated 2 seats each to IUML, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK).
KMDK and MMK are set to contest under the DMK's symbol. The MDMK will contest in the 'Rising Sun' symbol in 3 out of the 4 seats it has been given by the DMK.
The campaign is likely to intensify from next week, when the filing of nomination papers will formally commence on March 30.