Click to play videoChennai: The PMK on Thursday abandoned the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for a tie-up with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.
A meeting of the General Council voted overwhelmingly for going with the Jayalalitha-led AIADMK in the parliamentary elections. While 2,453 members voted for the alliance with the AIADMK, only 117 voted for continuing in the UPA, party sources said.
The General Council meeting of the party, which has six seats in the Lok Sabha, was attended by all its senior leaders, including PMK founder S Ramadoss and his son Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
“The general body of PMK met today and they overwhelmingly voted in favour of an alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. So this is the decision of my party and we will convey this to the Congress as well,” Ramadoss said.
The AIADMK has reportedly offered it seven Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha seats.
But the Congress insisted that it is better off without the PMK.
Putting up a brave face, party Spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said, “The split does not change its alliance with the DMK. I don’t think it is a game change. We were certainly hoping that our allies would stay together. In any case the PMK influence is restricted only to seven constituencies.”
In the 2004 elections, the DMK had got almost 25 per cent of votes in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK got about 30 per cent and PMK grabbed nearly 7 per cent of the votes.
The UPA vote share in Tamil Nadu increased to 14 per cent after the PMK joined them.
Think tanks like Editor of Tughlaq Cho Ramaswamy said that the PMK-AIADMK alliance will be advantageous to Jayalalithaa.
“AIADMK is not as strong in the north as it is in the south so this alliance will help, that is the expectation. Already Communists have left DMK. Now PMK has also deserted it. So alliance becomes weaker making matters easy for Jaya. Anti-incumbency will work against DMK,” Ramaswamy said.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.