In what has become a big twist in the tale, Tamil Nadu's Opposition party ADMK has on Wednesday - April 19 announced that it will contest in the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls and indeed, against its ally BJP. The announcement has come days after the party has decided to refrain from fielding its candidates in Karnataka and to support BJP in the state. 

ADMK's General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) played out the twist to open a new political clash with BJP. With the view of reviving the party's base in Karnataka, EPS has announced that ADMK will contest in the Karnataka polls and the party has planned to contest in the seats that are stronghold of Tamil people. To break new ground in the state, EPS has also announced a candidate for the polls.

As per the official statement from the party, ADMK's D Anbarasan will be constesting from the Pulikeshi Nagar constituency in Karnataka. Anbarasan, who is ADMK's Karnataka unit presidium chairman, is the party's first candidate in Karnataka and as per the sources, the ADMK leadership will announce a few more candidates in the coming days. 

In a statement, EPS said that the ADMK parliamentary board had decided to field Anbarasan as an official candidate of the party in Pulikeshi Nagar (SC) constituency. Anbarasan will be taking on BJP's candidate Murali and it will be the first time under the leadership of EPS that ADMK will run directly against BJP. In 2018, the Pulikeshi Nagar seat was won by S Akhanda Srinivasamurthy of the Congress party who defeated Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prasanna Kumar by a margin of 81,626 votes. 

It is pertinent to note that ADMK has fielded three candidates in the 2018 assembly elections in Karnataka and we can expect that the party will keep the same trend in the upcoming polls. Last Sunday - April 16, ADMK has decided not to contest in the Karnataka assembly polls and to extend its support to the BJP. This decision was made in the ADMK emergency executive committee meeting which was held in Chennai on Sunday. 

By taking a decision to refrain from contesting in the Karnataka polls, the committee had passed 15 resolutions of which, ten were against the ruling DMK government. In the midst of the leadership tussle between EPS and his rival O Panneerselvam, EPS has made a big move leading the party's election venture outside Tamil Nadu. His decision to contest in the Karnataka polls has come when the ties between ADMK and BJP in Tamil Nadu have beleaguered over contentious leadership of BJP's Annamalai. Karnataka's 224 assembly seats will go for a single-phase poll on May 10 and the results would be declared on May 13.