Veteran actor & comedian Senthil joins BJP ahead of Tamil Nadu Assembly Polls

In the latest development, Kollywood actor and comedian Senthil joined BJP on Thursday ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Senthil, who was with TTV Dhinakaran's AMMK, joined BJP in the presence of state president L Murugan and state in-charge CT Ravi. Senthil is the latest star to be inducted into the BJP ahead of the high-octane Assembly elections scheduled to take place in a single-phase, with the polling of votes on April 6 followed by the counting of votes on May 2. Senthil was previously associated with AIADMK as well. 

BJP gets 20 seats + Lok Sabha constituency 

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has decided to allot 20 seats to its NDA ally BJP in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, Dy CM O Panneerselvam said on Saturday. The announcement comes after multiple rounds of talks between the two parties, with the saffron party demanding more seats while the ruling AIADMK was hesitant resulting in an impasse. Dy CM OPS revealed that BJP had been allotted 20 seats in the AIADMK-led alliance and wished the ally luck for the upcoming polls. 

It is pertinent to note that the number of seats offered by AIADMK to the BJP is less than the number of seats allotted to Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). AIADMK finalized its alliance with PMK, allowing the latter to field candidates from 23 constituencies under the alliance. Meanwhile, 'Captain' Vijaykanth's DMDK parted ways with AIADMK after multiple rounds of seat-sharing talks that did not yield any results. R Sarathkumar's All-India Samathuva Makkal Katchi decided to split ways with the AIADMK alliance after not being approached by the ruling party and has now joined hands with Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). 

Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

The two warring factions in AIADMK - of Deputy CM O Pannerselvam (OPS) and CM E Palaniswamy (EPS), reconciled after the party named incumbent E Palaniswamy as its CM candidate and O Panneerselvam as the chief of the 11-member steering committee. He has also announced a slew of social measures like Pongal gift hampers, farm loan waiver, free COVID-19 vaccines, passing school students, etc which has been slammed by DMK M K Stalin calling it 'pre-poll appeasement'.  Meanwhile, ex-CM Karunanidhi's successor - DMK chief MK Stalin eyes his maiden CM term as DMK cannot afford to lose a third straight Assembly election after sweeping the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with 38 seats.