Chennai, Dec 17 (IANS) The AIADMK is reportedly planning to allocate a total of 100 Assembly seats to its alliance partners in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, while contesting the remaining 134 seats on its own.

According to political sources, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be allotted 65 seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) around 30 seats, and other smaller parties about five seats.

The seat-sharing calculations are largely being drawn from the vote share trends seen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In that election, the DMK-led INDIA bloc secured 46.97 per cent of the vote across Tamil Nadu’s 39 parliamentary constituencies.

The AIADMK-led alliance, which included parties such as the SDPI, polled 23.05 per cent of the votes.

Meanwhile, the NDA alliance — comprising the BJP, PMK, AIADMK, Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s faction — secured 18.28 per cent of the vote share.

Although the NDA failed to win any Lok Sabha seats, the performance at the constituency level revealed significant electoral potential.

The AIADMK finished second in 28 constituencies, while the BJP secured second place in 11 constituencies.

When these 39 parliamentary segments are mapped onto the corresponding 234 Assembly constituencies, the NDA and its allies were reportedly ahead in around 80 Assembly segments compared to the AIADMK-led alliance.

Based on this assessment, the Tamil Nadu BJP leadership is said to have urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allow the party to contest at least 75 of these 80 favourable Assembly seats. However, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami has reportedly proposed limiting the BJP’s share to 65 seats.

Sources indicate that the alliance between the AIADMK, BJP, and TMC for the forthcoming Assembly elections has now been broadly confirmed.

The AIADMK’s internal assessment suggests that, based on the NDA’s 18.28 per cent vote share in the last Lok Sabha election, the BJP’s claim to around 65 Assembly seats is justified.

If the PMK formally joins the alliance, it could be allotted up to 30 seats. The remaining five seats are expected to be distributed among smaller allies.

However, sources caution that the final numbers could change depending on last-minute political realignments. If additional parties enter the alliance, the seat allocation for the BJP and PMK may be reduced, with one scenario reportedly limiting the BJP to around 18 seats. Formal negotiations among alliance partners are expected to continue in the coming weeks, with the final seat-sharing arrangement likely to be announced closer to the election schedule.

–IANS

aal/dpb