Vijaykanth, People Welfare Front seal seat-sharing pact in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Opposition party leader Vijayakant has entered into a seat-sharing pact with the People Welfare Front, an alliance of MDMK, VCK and the two communist parties, strengthening the poll-time coalition against Dravidian parties.

Vijayakant's party will contest in 124 of the total 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, with the remaining 110 seats going to the People Welfare Front. Vijayakant will be projected as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

The alliance has been built after the BJP and the DMK failed roping in Vijayakant to join ranks against the ruling AIADMK, headed by chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Vaiko told reporters outside the party office of DMDK that Vijayakant has agreed to the arrangement that if the front comes to power, it will be a coalition government, and that Vaiko will be the convenor for the DMDK-PWF alliance, henceforth to be called "Captain Vijayakant" alliance.

Vijayakant is entering a poll-time alliance after contesting the 2011 assembly elections in alliance with the current ruling party ADMK. However, Vijayakant fell out with the chief minister soon afterward, publicly criticising her governance and leveraging her arrest in a disproportionate assets case to heighten the campaign against her.

Vijayakant was prevalently reported to be entertaining alliance opportunities with the M Karunanidhi-led DMK and the BJP. DMK treasurer and son of Karunanidhi, MK Stalin, had clarified that there were no alliance talks but just an open invitation to parties willing to rally against the ruling DMK.
At the event to announce the development, Vijayakant said: "There was talk that I was holding a bargain. Now, I have silenced my critics with this arrangement."

The local leadership of the BJP had expressed hope that it will keep intact the alliance it had for the 2014 Parliamentary elections: a six member alliance including the DMDK, MDMK, and PMK, which has projected its own chief ministerial candidate in Anbumani Ramadoss. But, with the PMK going on its own and Vaiko leading the welfare front, BJP's former strength as the convenor of a rainbow alliance stands diminished, compared to the Congress party's sealed alliance with the DMK.