Vijaykant seals election deal with Vaiko, Left

Actor-turned-politician A. Vijaykant on Wednesday announced that his DMDK will contest the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu in alliance with Vaiko's MDMK and the Left.

The new alliance said Vijaykant, popularly known as "Captain" and who even the BJP was wooing, would be the chief ministerial candidate of the People's Welfare Alliance (PWF).

The announcement makes the PWF, which until now was made up of the MDMK, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Dalit party VCK, a major force in the May electoral battle.

While the DMDK will put up candidates in 124 seats, the remaining 110 seats will be contested by the MDMK and the other three parties.

"This is the alliance the people were looking for," Vaiko told the media. "The election (in Tamil Nadu) will now be like a Kurukshetra war."

DMK leader M.K. Stalin, whose party has tied up with the Congress, made light of the DMDK move. "This is not going to affect us," he said.

The ruling AIADMK will now face multiple contests in virtually all the 234 constituencies. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the PMK are contesting the elections separately.