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Journalism of Courage
Deputi Prime Minister L.K. Advani and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa are likely to give a concrete shape to the BJP-AIADMK seat-sharing arrangement for Lok Sabha polls during the Dy PM’s visit to Chennai tomorrow.
Though Advani will be officially be attending a function, he will meet the AIADMK leader for dinner. The meeting — the first after DMK’s pull-out from NDA — is expected to focus on fine-tuning the tie-up. The two parties decided to ‘‘work together’’ in the polls during a meeting between Jayalalithaa and BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu on January 28.
Sources disclosed here today that the AIADMK supremo has offered five of the 39 seats to BJP. These include Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Nagarcoil, which BJP currently holds.
The party had contested six seats in alliance with DMK, MDMK and PMK last time and had won four of them. The fourth was Tiruchirapally, bagged by Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, which the BJP lost in the by-election held after his death. Though BJP would have ideally expected 10 seats, it neither has an obliging partner, nor the requisite strength yet to justify the demand. However, Advani may ask Jayalalithaa to keep BJP’s share at six seats, as in the party’s previous deal with DMK. The other hitch is over the Pudukkottai, represented by Minister Thirunavukkarasu. He had joined BJP by merging his MGR DMK party with it. While BJP leadership feels called upon to protect his seat, Jayalalithaa is keen on fielding her own candidate there.
