Questions over who truly leads the NDA in Tamil Nadu - the Edappadi K Palaniswami led AIADMK or the BJP high command - have intensified amid a flurry of Delhi visits by alliance leaders ahead of the seat-sharing talks.
AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami has flown twice to the national capital to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah, marking a clear shift from late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's style of making allies come to Chennai.
The optics have handed political ammunition to the ruling DMK. Chief Minister MK Stalin launched a sharp attack, accusing the AIADMK of "mortgaging" itself in Delhi and warning that Tamil Nadu would suffer under forces seeking approval from the national capital even to face elections.
The churn deepened as PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran also left for Delhi this morning, underlining the centrality of BJP leadership in alliance negotiations.
However, uncertainty looms over seat allocation.
There is speculation that the BJP, despite its limited electoral footprint in the state, may seek a larger number of seats under it which it would share or distribute to other allies. This a clever way to make its larger tally up in the alliance.
A senior state BJP leader who didn't want to be named indicated that the party may allocate seats to AMMK alone from its own quota.
Adding to the intrigue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far avoided projecting Palaniswami as the NDA's chief ministerial face, referring instead broadly to an "NDA government" - a nuance that continues to fuel debate over who ultimately calls the shots in Tamil Nadu's NDA.
