Congress and DMK set to seal Tamil Nadu seat-sharing deal for Lok Sabha polls

India वोट Kar | February 20, 2019

A day after its rivals announced an alliance in Tamil Nadu, the Congress was expected to finalise its partnership with MK Stalin’s DMK for the Lok Sabha election. Under the reported arrangement, the Congress would contest nine of the state’s 39 seats along with the lone seat in Puducherry, while the DMK would contest 20 to 25 seats and leave the rest to smaller allies.

How the talks went

To work out the formula, the DMK’s Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi held two meetings with Rahul Gandhi, on Monday morning and again on Tuesday evening. Sources said she proposed a 9+1 split. The DMK initially offered eight seats while the Congress reportedly sought 11; the Congress had hoped for about 10, but the DMK felt that an extra seat could hurt the alliance. The DMK was said to want 25 seats for itself, with seven small parties in the coalition.

After meeting Kanimozhi, Rahul Gandhi held discussions with senior Tamil Nadu Congress leaders, including former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan. Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik were to travel to Chennai, with the agreement and formal announcement expected around 4 PM, according to a senior Congress leader.

Past alliances and rival camp

The Congress contested 10 seats in Tamil Nadu as part of a DMK-led alliance in 2004 and 16 in 2009. The two parties fought separately in 2014.

The DMK-led front lost the PMK, led by S Ramadoss, to the BJP-AIADMK combine. The PMK has a support base in northern Tamil Nadu and has won up to 10% of votes in the state in past national polls. The BJP finalised its alliance with the ruling AIADMK on Tuesday, with the AIADMK saying the BJP would get five of the 39 seats in the state plus Puducherry’s one.