AIADMK Bargains Hard With The BJP Over Seat Sharing
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-03-01 08:37:42
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
Amit Shah is in Chennai to finalize the seat-sharing ratio before the state elections. The meeting continued late last night but there was no agreement. It has been reported that the BJP wants 60 seats while the AIADMK is unwilling to give it more than 21. Both sides are indulging in posturing and it is expected that a figure close to 30/35 seats might be worked out in the end.
The AIADMK knows that the BJP has neither the standing nor the infrastructure in the state to bargain hard. But it also knows that the party can bring in heavy firepower (in terms of money and campaigners like top BJP leaders including PM Modi, Amit Shah, J P Nadda and Yogi Adityanath, among others) for the alliance. Hence, facing a resurgent DMK (that did exceedingly well in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections) and a joker in the pack in the form of Sasikala, it knows that although it has to win as many seats as it can (and for that it has to contest a larger number of seats), it also knows that it has to accommodate the BJP too.
The BJP, on the other hand, after drawing a blank in both the state elections in 2016 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, knows that the AIADMK is weak now and needs its support. Hence it is going to bargain hard to expand it footprint in the southern state. The party has identified 60 seats where it had increased its vote share in successive elections and it feels it should get the right to contest these. The AIADM is playing the infrastructure card by pointing out that the BJP does not have enough booth level agents to claim so many seats and also says that seats have to be given to PMK also.
The hard bargaining is likely to be over today with a decision likely to be announced later in the evening. In all probability, the AIADMK is likely to contest 170-180 seats, the BJP 30 seats and the PMK (with which the AIADMK has already settled for 23 seats) and other smaller alliance partners the rest. In that case, the AIADMK will have to settle at 170 seats and the BJP at 30 with 34 seats going to the others. It remains to be seen whether the BJP can convince the AIADMK to part with some seats from its quota so that it can contest on more seats.
