AIADMK's Last Minute Quota Deal Seals Alliance, Seat-Sharing Talks On

Saturday, 27 February 2021Newsdesk

Minutes before the Election Commission announced the poll schedule for five states, including Tamil Nadu, yesterday, the state Assembly cleared 10.5% reservation for the Vanniyar community in educational institutions and in the appointment of posts in government services. What was not reported then is that the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) also sealed a poll deal with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a party with strong roots in the community that the legislators had just favoured.

New Delhi, 27 February 2021

This was just one of the many wheels that began to turn - or accelerated - within the larger Tamil Nadu Political wheel. The state goed to polls on April 6 and results will be declared on May 2. The PMK and AIADMK will begin seat-sharing talks today, though the buzz is that the S Ramadoss-founded outfit is demanding 25 seats to contest from. The party, now led by GK Mani, has no representatives in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly right now. The PMK has, for long, fought to promote the interests of the Vanniyars, a powerful trading caste dominant in northern Tamil Nadu. The last time it won an Assembly election was in 2011 - three seats - in alliance with the DMK. It lost even those three seats in the 2016 polls, even though the party had contested in 30. The last time the PMK was in power was between 2006 and 2011 in alliance with the DMK.

Source - NDTV