How allies could tilt the scales in favour of AIADMK T. Ramakrishnan 
CHENNAI, February 19, 2019 08:15 IST

Collective leadership: Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK Coordinator O. Panneerselvam and Chief Minister and co-coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami at the district secretaries’ meeting of the party.   | Photo Credit: B_JOTHI RAMALINGAM
Parties like PMK and DMDK are a force to reckon with
The inclusion of the PMK, the DMDK, the BJP and a few others in the alliance led by the ruling AIADMK could brighten the prospects of the coalition in the northern districts and parts of western and southern districts of the State, if one were to go by the performance of these parties in the 2016 Assembly election.
The talks among the parties seem to have reached a finality, and the PMK, the DMDK, the BJP, the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) and the Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK) are said to be part of the proposed alliance.
It is in this context that a study, based on the data of vote share secured by the parties in 234 Assembly seats, has been carried out, recalibrating the data to reflect the possible tally for the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies. For reasons of convenience, the figures of the DMDK and the BJP include those of the TMC (Moopanar) and the IJK. While the DMDK had contested the last Assembly polls as part of the People’s Welfare Front comprising the two Left parties, MDMK, VCK and TMC(M), the IJK had allied with the BJP.