AIADMK, Congress invite applications from ticket aspirants for assembly polls

Election heat is taking over Tamil Nadu this winter. Ahead of concluding the seat-sharing deal with their respective alliance partners, the Opposition AIADMK, heading the NDA in the state, and the Congress, part of the INDIA bloc headed by the ruling DMK, have invited applications from aspirants for the party ticket in the 2026 assembly elections.

A day after the AIADMK general council meeting, which vested him with absolute authority on the issue of alliance for expanding the NDA, party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday announced the schedule for receiving applications by aspirants for the party ticket. “Applications for the party ticket can be received at the AIADMK headquarters from December 15 to 23. Filled in applications should be submitted within the stipulated time,” he said in a statement.

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Interestingly, he also asked ticket aspirants from Puducherry and Kerala to get the applications since the Union Territory and the neighbouring state as well are also having assembly elections early next year.

Among the parties in Tamil Nadu, it was the Congress in the DMK-led combine, the first to set in motion the process of seat-sharing talks with the five-member constituted by the AICC for the purpose making a courtesy call on Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin at the DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam last week. On Wednesday, the party had launched the distribution of applications for ticket aspirants at the party headquarters, Sathyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai.

However, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) of TTV Dhinakaran, who had walked out of the NDA recently, was the first to launch the process and the Ramadoss faction of the OBC Vanniyar-dominant Pattali Makkal Katchi, had followed suit overtaking his son, heading the official faction of the party.