AIMIM, in search of partners, initially opted for the DMK-Congress alliance (Archive)
Chennai:
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM has teamed up with TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) for the Tamil Nadu polls next month.
As part of its participation in the seat with the AMMK for the April 6 elections, AIMIM will contest three of Tamil Nadu’s 234 seats: Vaniyambadi, Krishnagiri and Sankarapuram.
TTV Dhinakaran, a lone gamer since his aunt VK Sasikala decided to walk away from politics before the election, hopes to at least dent the votes of the ruling AIADMK.
Dhinakaran floated her own team after Sasikala was removed as head of AIADMK after her four-year jail sentence in a corruption case. Sasikala’s protégé, E Palaniswami or EPS, then joined the rebel faction led by O Panneerselvam or OPS and Mr. Dhinakaran was marginalized.
In 2017, Dhinakaran shook AIADMK by winning the constituency of the RK Nagar assembly from its charismatic leader and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who died in office in 2016.
Dhinakaran did not deliver on the promise in the 2019 national elections, but its vote percentage was 8.46%, which should concern AIADMK more than any other party. Its candidates were in third place, but their votes were reduced to those of AIADMK.
The BJP had reportedly tried to get the AMMK to participate in order to avoid any split in AIADMK’s votes. But EPS was reportedly totally against it. The Chief Minister was reportedly concerned about a merger with Mr. Dhinakaran that would allow Sasikala to return to the top of the AIADMK.
The BJP is said to believe that AMMK can have an impact on more than 40 constituencies.
AIMIM, which was seeking partners, initially leaned toward the DMK-Congress alliance, but apparently did not get the response it hoped for, perhaps due to the other Muslim parties in the alliance, such as the Indian Union Muslim League.
In 2016, AIMIM had sent its head of state unit, Vakeel Ahmed, from this seat and had achieved nearly six percent of the vote with more than 10,000 votes. The AIADMK candidate won.
This time, AIMIM’s Tamil Nadu unit had given Asaduddin Owaisi a list of 20 seats he wanted to contest.
The results of the Tamil Nadu elections will be released on May 2.
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