JOIN USThe Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu on Sunday said that it will finalise the number of constituencies to be given to the Congress on Monday.
It was decided after prolonged negotiation on seat sharing arrangements for the May 16 polls.
“Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will meet DMK president M Karunanidhi on Monday for seat-sharing talks. Therefore, we expect that a good decision will be attained,” Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin said.
Round of talks
The ensuing meeting between Azad and Karunanidhi will be the second round of seat-sharing talks and the deal is expected to be sealed.
The first round of talks held on March 25 remained inconclusive, since the Congress demanded more seats, which made the DMK to drag the issue.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) sources told Deccan Herald that it has been demanding the same number of 63 seats allotted to it in the 2011 polls, considering that Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) led by actor Vijayakanth had not joined the DMK-led front and that the DMK has enough seats to offer.
But, the DMK rejected TNCC’s demand to offer so many seats stating that the situation was different this time.
However, after hectic parleys it was believed that the DMK is ready to offer 35 to 40 seats for the Congress and the deal is expected to be signed in the next meeting.
Putting aside their past acrimony, the DMK and the Congress entered into a poll pact in February for the upcoming Assembly elections in state.
In 2011 polls to the state Assembly, the DMK had allocated 63 seats in the alliance. In 2006, it was 48 seats. After having an alliance with the Congress in 2004, the DMK snapped its ties with the UPA government in 2013 by charging the Centre for not effectively handling the Sri Lankan Tamil’s issue.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections the Congress and the DMK fought separately and the former drew blank in all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.
The Congress in the state has weakened after one of its senior leader and former Union minister G K Vasan quit the party and revived his Tamil Maanila Congress.