Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 21 : Ahead of the scheduled Tamil Nadu assembly polls, Congress MP Jyothimani claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken leadership control of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), asserting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was now the "owner" of the regional party.
Speaking to ANI, the Congress MP accused the BJP of gradually weakening its alliance partners in the past. She said that AIADMK no longer controls its leadership, which has been weakened.
"Right now, the owner of AIADMK is Amit Shah. The party is no longer in control of its own leadership. The party has weakened after Jayalalitha. BJP has choked them using CBI, ED and other agencies. BJP is the same design; whichever party they have made an alliance with in the past, they have eaten up the party. Other than a few states, the BJP has not had a win on its own," Jyothimani said.
Regarding seat-sharing talks with the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), she said her party held discussions regarding the selection of constituencies, following which a meeting will be held with the ruling party in Tamil Nadu regarding the candidates.
"We just tried to have a first meeting of the State Election Committee. We broadly discussed the idea and tried to lay down the rules and guidelines on how to go about selecting the constituencies. Today's focus is mostly on selecting the constituencies. Once we're done and we have a meeting with the DMK, then based on that, we will have a meeting again to select the candidates," she said.
On the other hand, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami asserted that discussions on seat-sharing are progressing "smoothly" within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Indicating a critical moment towards the single-phase assembly elections scheduled to be held on April 23, the AIADMK leader said that an official announcement on the seat-sharing between alliance parties will be made in the coming days.
"Discussions on seat-sharing are progressing smoothly among the parties in the NDA led by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. An official announcement detailing the constituencies allocated to each party will be made within four days," Palaniswami, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Tamil Nadu assembly, told reporters.
The ECI on Sunday announced that Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase on April 23, with counting of votes scheduled for May 4. The current tenure of the 234-member state assembly ends on May 10.
The main electoral contest is expected between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led alliance, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) as allies. Vijay is also set to make his political debut in this election with his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and will look to turn the polls into a triangular contest.
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