Ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has finalized its seat-sharing arrangements, where the BJP will contest 27 of the 234 seats, while the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will contest 178 seats.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will contest 18 seats and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) will contest 11 seats.
AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami made the announcement during a joint press conference at the party headquarters in Chennai. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, BJP Tamil Nadu president Nainar Nagendran, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss and AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran attended the event.
Reacting to the BJP’s decision to contest 27 seats in the TN elections, BJP’s Tamil Nadu election in-charge Goyal said, “We are all one family and we will fight the election to win it… We are very satisfied with the 27 seats, we will sweep the elections because the people of the state are fed up with CM Stalin and DCM Udhayanidhi Stalin… They have damaged the culture of the state… NDA will form the government in the state…”.
Separately, AC Shanmugam, founder of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, said that he had informed Piyush Goyal about his party’s readiness to contest nine assembly constituencies under the BJP’s lotus symbol. He also referred to his previous electoral performance in Vellore, pointing out that he had polled 3.25 lakh votes in 2014 under the BJP symbol and 4.70 lakh votes when contesting with the support of AIADMK.
“In 2014, we contested with Prime Minister Modi, the then candidate, under the lotus symbol and got 3.25 lakh votes in Vellore. I contested from Vellore under AIADMK and got 4.70 lakh votes… I have already informed Piyush Goyal that we are ready to contest under the lotus symbol and submitted a list of 9 constituencies, asking for 4-3,” he said.
Tamil Nadu is scheduled to go to the polls in a single phase on April 23, with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on May 4. The current term of the 234-member state assembly expires on May 10.
(With inputs from Annie)
