Will Stalin's 20-20 strategy work out in polls?

DMK President M.K. Stalin on Tuesday said his party would contest in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and the remaining 20, including Puducherry's sole seat, had been allocated to allies. The DMK's announcement virtually closes the door on Vijayakanth's DMDK, which is yet to forge an alliance though the ruling AIADMK is positive about aligning with the actor-politician's party. The DMK had earlier wooed the DMDK for an alliance.

Stalin said his party has concluded the seat-sharing agreement with all of its allies and that the process of identifying the constituencies to allot to them would start from Thursday. “We have successfully completed seat-sharing pacts with our allies. We have allotted 10 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to Congress and another 10 seats to other alliance partners. So, we will contest in the rest of the 20 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls,” Stalin said after signing the poll pact with Vaiko’s MDMK at the party headquarters.

Without  M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa around, the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu is likely to lack spice and flavour. The Dravidian majors, which fought against each other with grit and aggression in 2014, have chosen the path of prudent coalitions for 2019.