In battle for Tamil Nadu, why allies give Stalin and DMK the edge

Tamil Nadu will be the first major state to complete polling, with all its 39 Lok Sabha seats voting in the first phase on April 19. In recent weeks, the BJP has led a considerable campaign effort in the state, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting multiple times since the election schedule was announced. Even if the fight remains centred on the DMK and AIADMK, the BJP will look to gain in terms of vote share and pick up some seats.

The INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu is led by the DMK and includes the Congress, Left parties, IUML, Dalit-based VCK, actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s MNM, former DMK leader Vaiko’s MDMK, and the Gounder community-based KMDK.

Tamil Nadu is among the few states where the INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing talks have been largely amicable, with the parties agreeing to roughly the same split as 2019 – 9 seats for the Congress, 2 seats each to the VCK, CPI(M), and CPI, and a seat each to the MDMK, IUML and KMDK, leaving 21 for Chief Minister M K Stalin-led DMK.

Since ending its alliance with the BJP last October, owing to the increasing animosity between the parties and its differences with BJP state unit chief K Annamalai in particular, the AIADMK has looked elsewhere for support. Aside from the relatively prominent DMDK, which the BJP too was trying to woo, the AIADMK has put together an alliance of minor parties including the Puthiya Tamilagam (PT), and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The AIADMK has kept 32 for itself, giving 5 to the DMDK, founded by the late matinee star Vijayakanth, and 1 each to the PT and SDPI.

The BJP too has managed to cobble together a handful of regional parties, including Vanniyar caste leader S Ramadoss’s PMK, former AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran’s AMMK, former