As the state of Tamil Nadu is three weeks away from the crucial assembly polls, both the Dravidian parties ADMK and DMK are all set for the race after closing the talks with the allied parties over seat-sharing. They have inked the deal with the allied parties, which eventually had drawn them towards the conclusion of talks and the revelation of how many seats that both the parties will contest directly. 

In an unprecedented fashion, the ruling ADMK and the opposition DMK had faced challenges in accommodating a handful of parties in their respective alliance, and the accommodation drive kept changing the calculations on how many seats that the ADMK and DMK will contest. The talks with the allied parties had held for over two weeks and while most had seen a deal, some had broken the alliance to establish a new front and to support the rivals. 

As the final output, DMK and ADMK are in hope that they had formed a potent coalition and are ready to contest in around 180 seats. According to reports, DMK will be contesting in 174 seats, and some of the parties in its alliance like MDMK had made the deal to contest in DMK's 'Rising Sun' symbol, and with the help of these parties, DMK will have 187 candidates on the card who are going to contest in Rising Sun symbol. 

DMK has signed a deal with the Congress party and agreed to offer 25 seats while Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) has got six seats and it will contest in the polls in the independent symbol. However, Vaiko's MDMK, which also got six seats, will field its candidates and contest in DMK's Rising Sun symbol. Both the Communist parties have been awarded six seats each and will contest in independent symbol while Manithaneya Makkal Katchi has been offered two seats and it will contest in the independent symbol in one seat while in the Rising Sun symbol in the other. 

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) will be contesting in three seats with the independent symbol while Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi will be contesting in three seats in DMK's symbol. The DMK has allotted one seat each to All India Forward Bloc, Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi, Makkal Viduthalai Katchi, and Adhi Tamizhar Peravai and all these four parties will contest in DMK's Rising Sun symbol. In total, the DMK will directly contest in 174 constituencies and the Rising Sun symbol will be on the ballot in 187 constituencies, which means that the DMK together with its allies will be contesting 187 seats on the Rising Sun Symbol, the highest since 1989.

On the other side of the aisle, the political grid in ADMK has been changed after the sudden exit of Vijayakanth's DMDK from the alliance. According to reports, ADMK will likely be contesting in 180 seats and the final numbers will come to shape after the ruling party inks the deal with the regional parties like Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC- GK Vasan), Puthiya Tamilagam (Krishnasamy), and Puthiya Needhi Katchi (AC Shanmugam). 

So far, ADMK has sealed the pack with PMK and BJP by offering 23 and 20 seats respectively and when DMDK was in talks, it was predicted that the ADMK will contest in 160-170 seats after allotting seats to DMDK. The state ruling party was in talks with Vijayakanth's camp to offer 15 seats against the DMDK's demand of 25 seats. Initially, the DMDK had demanded 41 seats, and later on, it lowered the numbers and finally stood with the demand of 25 seats to ensure that it will not contest in numbers less than PMK. However, the ADMK leaders had held talks with the DMDK to get settled for 15 seats. 

There were no signs that both the parties would reach an amicable resolution over seat-sharing and on Tuesday, DMDK chief Vijayakanth issued a statement in which he had said that the party has decided to exit the ADMK alliance after the ruling party had refused to allot the seats as per its demand. Though the BJP appealed to DMDK to reconsider its decision, ADMK will less likely call DMDK back to the alliance as the ruling party plans to contest more seats than DMK by using the prospect of DMDK's exit. 

ADMK leaders are currently in talks with GK Vasan and it has been speculated that the ruling party will offer three seats to Vasan. Earlier, Sarathkumar's Samathuva Makkal Katchi and Karunas's Mukkulathor Pulipadai had exited from the ADMK alliance. In total, ADMK has five parties in its alliance - BJP, PMK, TMC, Puthiya Tamilagam, and Puthiya Needhi Katchi and the ruling party will likely be contesting in 180 seats. 

In 2016, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, ADMK has contested 227 seats while the rest seven seats were allotted to six parties and all these parties had contested in the 'Two Leaves' symbol. DMK had contested 178 seats in the 2016 polls. In the 2021 polls, DMK's Rising Sun will contest in more seats than in 2016 while there will be a drastic decrease in the number of seats that the ADMK will contest in 2021. Tamil Nadu will be going to the polls on April 6 and the votes will be counted on May 2, during which the state will know who is the next Chief Minister.