BJP, AIADMK to jointly contest LS polls in TN, Puducherry

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will contest Lok Sabha elections together in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The BJP will contest on five out of the 39 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and 1 seat in Puducherry.

Speaking to media here after holding talks with the BJP, AIADMK leader and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said the BJP-AIADMK alliance will be a winning one.

"For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AIADMK and BJP have agreed to form a mega alliance. This alliance will be a winning alliance in both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. In this alliance, BJP is allotted five seats," he said.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who was also present at the media briefing, said the BJP will support AIADMK in the by-elections on 21 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu.

"We will support AIADMK in the by-elections on 21 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. We have agreed to contest elections under the leadership of O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the state and Modi Ji at the Centre," he said.

Earlier in the day, Panneerselvam had said the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will support the AIADMK-BJP front in Tamil Nadu in the forthcoming general elections.

The PMK, which has a strong voter base in northern Tamil Nadu, especially among the OBC Vanniyar community, will contest on six Lok Sabha seats and will be given one Rajya Sabha seat.

In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disqualified and two dead).