By IANS,
Chennai: Three days after the AIADMK unilaterally released a list of 160 candidates much to the fury of its allies, party chief J. Jayalalithaa Saturday said the ‘official’ list of candidates for the Tamil Nadu polls will be announced Monday.
Citing the on-going constituency sharing talks with allies, Jayalalithaa asked all those candidates named in the earlier list not to file their nominations and wait for the revised version.
In a statement, she said candidates who figure in the March 21 list should file their nominations March 24 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Nominations for elections to the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly began Saturday. The state goes to polls April 13.
For the past two days, Jayalalithaa is in discussion with the DMDK led by Vijayakant and the Vaiko-led MDMK and the talks are expected to conclude by Sunday.
Trouble arose for the AIADMK after it Wednesday unilaterally released the list of constituencies it desired to contest even while discussions were on with allies on seat sharing.
Most parties in the AIADMK-led front were furious on seeing the list. It included the seats won by the Left in 2006 and those sought by Vijaykant.
Faced with the threat of its disgrunted allies forming a Third Front and eating into its vote share, the AIADMK Friday held further discussions with its partners.
“The AIADMK says the earlier list was issued due to a mix-up,” a CPI leader told IANS.
On Friday evening, Jayalalitha met leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), DMDK and other allies.
First to emerge from the meeting was the CPI team after securing its 10 constituencies.
After discussions, the AIADMK agreed to let the CPI-M contest from the 12 seats the Marxists wanted.
“The talks went off well and we have got the 12 constituencies we wanted. Now our one-point agenda is to defeat the DMK in the polls,” CPI-M leader T.K. Rangarajan told IANS.
The AIADMK has sewed up alliances for 74 of the 234 seats with 10 allies: DMDK (41), CPI-M (12), CPI (10), MNMK (3), PT (2), SMK (2), RPI (1), FB (1), KYF (1) and AIMMK (1). The MDMK could become its 11th ally.