Jaya relegates Congress to junior role,
leaves it just 12 seats
S Ramesan in Madras
While the Congress will contest 12 seats, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will contest 23 of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry in the election for the thirteenth Lok Sabha.
The deal was struck at a 45-minute meeting between AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha and Congress Working Committee members Manmohan Singh and A K Antony at her Poes Garden residence in Madras.
Of the remaining five seats, the Communist Party of India and the CPI (Marxist) will contest two each and the Indian National League one.
The Indian Union Muslim League, the Janata Party and the Janata Dal, which are also part of the AIADMK-led front, have not been given any seats.
This is the first time the Congress is contesting the Lok Sabha election as a junior partner of the AIADMK. It is apparently a result of its dwarfed stature in the state after having drawn a blank in the last two Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress had contested the last Lok Sabha election on its own, while the AIADMK had teamed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party and won 18 of the 23 seats it contested.
The clinching of the deal between the Congress and the AIADMK is bound to herald the formation of a third front in the state by the Tamil Maanila Congress of G K Moopanar, who is expected to announce his decision at a party rally in Madurai tomorrow.
UNI
EARLIER REPORT:
Congress strikes poll deal with AIADMK
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