The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Tuesday officially forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP will contest from five of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in the upcoming polls, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced. The AIADMK will contest 21 Lok Sabha seats.
Tamil Nadu Deputy CM O Panneerselvam: AIADMK and BJP will have an alliance for Lok Sabha elections which will be a mega and winning alliance pic.twitter.com/WeEADmnzR6
— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2019
Chief Minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam met with PMK's S Ramadoss, after which it was announced that the smaller party will contest seven parliamentary seats.
The Deputy CM of the state also said that according to the pact, the BJP would support AIADMK candidates in the coming Assembly by-elections in 21 constituencies.
Union railways minister Piyush Goyal was also present in the AIADMK-BJP joint press conference.
Goyal said, "We have agreed to contest the Parliament elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry."
"All 40 seats in Tamil Nadu (39 seats) and Puducherry will be won by us," Goyal added.
Asked about other parties like DMDK, Goyal said the alliance will take place in due course of time. He said he will be meeting DMDK leader Vijayakant.
Earlier in the day, the AIADMK announced a pact with PMK, whereby the latter would contest in seven Lok Sabha seats and would also get a Rajya Sabha seat in 2019.
The PMK would also support the AIADMK in the coming bypolls.
In 2014, the BJP, snubbed by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, formed an alliance with parties like MDMK, PMK and DMDK and won only two seats. The J Jayalalithaa-led AIAMDK won 37 seats.
(Inputs from IANS)
