Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan has confirmed that the party will be contesting from 154 of 234 seats in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. He added that the party decided to share the remaining 80 seats with its alliance partners — All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) and Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi — 40 seats for each. However, he hasn't officially released the seat-sharing arrangement.
Earlier, while confirming the electoral alliance with the MNM, AISMK founder Sarath Kumar had confirmed that Kamal Haasan would be its chief ministerial candidate. While launching his electoral campaign last week, Kamal Haasan had said that Tamils could not be convinced to vote by “tweaking” Tamil pride. He even said that the AIADMK government’s promise of employment has remained far from reality.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 20 seats to contest in the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections, which will cast their votes to 234 MLAs in a single-phase polling on April 6. However, according to sources, the seat-sharing issue remains unsettled in the ruling alliance. Also, reportedly, the AIADMK plans to contest 170 seats on its own and in the remaining 64 seats, 20 will be for BJP, 23 seats for PMK, 15 to DMDK and six remaining seats for smaller alliances.
Meanwhile, the TimesNow-C Voter opinion poll has predicted that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is likely to sweep the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Moreover, it suggested that the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) tally might come down to 65 seats, which is a massive decline from that of the 2016 elections. In 2016, the party won 136 seats.
On April 6, Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will be held in a single phase and the counting will be done on May 2.
