Days after unveiling the prefix of forming a new alliance for the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kamal Haasan and Sarathkumar have on Monday inked a deal to contest in the assembly polls and the deal has also been made with TR Pachamuthu's Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK) as these three parties have formed an alliance, which has one of the crucial fronts in the state. 

On Monday, Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam, Sarathkumar's Samathuva Makkal Katchi (SMK), and IJK had made the deal and agreed to contest in the assembly polls together. According to the deal, Makkal Needhi Maiam will be contesting in 154 seats while SMK and IJK will be contesting in 40 seats each, which are the highest numbers awarded to these two parties. Recently, SMK had quit ADMK and IJK quitted from DMK and engineered an alliance with Kamal Haasan. 

The agreement said, "With the common agenda of restoring the pride and glory of Tamil Nadu, they (three parties) have decided to embark on a long-lasting journey together". "The primary goal of this platform is to contest the upcoming assembly elections with a promise for change and emerge victorious to form the government. The parties have committed to the common goal of transforming Tamil Nadu by fulfilling the long pending aspirations of the people", the agreement added. 

Sarathkumar broke the ties with the ADMK late last month and raised many eyebrows by meeting IJK's leader Ravi Pachamuthu. IJK had quitted from DMK and both IJK and SMK had made the alliance last month and Sarathkumar had met Kamal Haasan and invited the latter to join the alliance. While Sarathkumar met Haasan, it was speculated that they would be emerging as one of the crucial fronts in the state. 

There were talks between them to finalize the seat-sharing and by inking the deal, Kamal Haasan had cleared the clouds of speculations. The deal has come when Tamil Nadu is three weeks away from the assembly polls. Recently, Sarathkumar has said that Kamal Haasan will be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the alliance, and the deal over seat-sharing has confirmed the slot for the third front in the assembly polls. 

Though the alliance is confirmed, the three parties are yet to decide on the allotment of constituencies. Tamil Nadu will be witnessing five fronts for the assembly polls - ADMK and its alliance, DMK and its alliance, Kamal Haasan- Sarathkumar, Dhinakaran's AMMK, and Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi. 

As the drive of filing nomination papers to contest in the polls will begin on Friday - March 12, it has been expected that the Kamal Haasan-Sarathkumar-IJK alliance will be finalizing and announcing the allotment of constituencies soon.  Tamil Nadu will go to the single-phase poll on April 6 and the votes will be counted on May 2, during which the results will be announced.