Cong, BJP direct fight in 5 TN Assembly, 1 LS seats

Chennai, March 12 The Congress and BJP, which are the junior partners to the two Dravidian parties -- the DMK and AIADMK respectively -- are engaged in a direct fight in five Assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu.

The seats are Colachel, Vilavancode, Udhagamandalam, Karaikudi and Coimbatore South. Other than these seats the national parties are fighting against each other in the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat for the bypolls.

Protests have already erupted in Coimbatore with the supporters of sitting MLA Amman Arjunan sitting on dharna against the likely candidature of BJP Women's wing national president, Vanathi Srinivasan.

BJP state president L.Murugan told IANS said, "We fighting against the Congress directly is not a big issue. Whether the fronts are fighting against each other and individual parties are immaterial. AIADMK, BJP, PMK combine will rule Tamil Nadu after the April 6 elections and we are happy at the cohesive front in which we are part of. Pon Radhakrishnan will win the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat in the by-polls."

The DMK is likely to announce its final list on Friday as the seats allocated to the CPM candidates are still uncertain. The CPM has been sulking over the seat sharing as the party wanted 12 seats while the DMK managers allocated only 6, which the CPM had to accept reluctantly.