The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) in Tamil Nadu has joined hands with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. According to a press release issued by AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran on Monday, 8 March, AIMIM will be contesting from three constituencies.
“In the alliance led by the AMMK, Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and the AIMIM Party led by him has been allotted three constituencies in Tamil Nadu, namely Vaniyambadi, Krishnagiri and Sankarapuram,” said Dhinakaran.
The News Minute had reported a week ago that AIMIM would either choose to go with Dhinakaran’s AMMK or the DMK in the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections.
The Tamil Nadu unit of the MIM had submitted its list to party chief Owaisi in which they had mentioned the constituencies from where the state unit was hoping to field candidates.
The list had 20 seats from Tamil Nadu and two seats from Puducherry. Though the state unit had said that they were interested in contesting from 20 seats in Tamil Nadu, sources in the party had told The News Minute that MIM would contest in very few seats, much lesser than the number requested by the state unit.
Though the AIMIM was keen on joining the DMK alliance, the other Muslim parties – Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) – were not too comfortable with Owaisi’s party joining the DMK alliance. This is probably the reason why the party decided to go ahead with TTV Dhinakaran’s party in an alliance.
On Monday, when reporters asked the Hyderabad MP about the party’s decision in the upcoming Tamil Nadu polls, he said he would announce the decision on Tuesday. However, Dhinakaran took to twitter to make the announcement on Monday itself.
Speaking to The News Minute, Vakeel Ahmed, AIMIM’s Tamil Nadu unit President said, “We will be contesting three seats from Tamil Nadu. We are very confident of winning all three seats. We are happy about this alliance. We will work hard and put in all our efforts in all the 234 seats to ensure that our alliance partner emerges victorious.”
TTV Dhinakaran will be contesting this election as part of the AMMK even after his aunt and former aide of J Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala announced that she is temporarily staying away from politics.
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will face the polls on 6 April in a single phase. The results of the Assembly elections will be declared on 2 May. The two major Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu – the DMK and the AIADMK – are expected to release their election manifestos on 10 March.
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
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