Congress-DMK alliance faces trouble, now in Puducherry

Chennai: After Tamil Nadu, the Congress and DMK are now fighting over the assembly elections in neighbouring Puducherry with the Dravidian party launching seat negotiations with its allies without consulting the national party.

Also, the DMK in Puducherry is planning to demand more than the 13 seats that it contested in the 2021 polls from the Congress this time, leading to further rift between the two parties.

Traditionally, the Congress contested maximum seats and allotted some seats to the DMK in Puducherry but the situation changed in 2021 when the former contested in 16 and the latter in 13 seats.

This time around, with the seat-sharing talks between the two parties deadlocked in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, which has more MLAs than the Congress in the outgoing assembly, decided to launch talks with VCK, and Left parties.

DMK’s election in-charge for Puducherry and Lok Sabha MP S Jagathrakshakan, who is said to have Chief Ministerial ambitions, visited the UT earlier this week but chose not to meet Congress leaders.

However, Jagathrakshakan said he met leaders of alliance parties only as a courtesy and that he will meet Congress functionaries soon.

Congress, which won just 2 of the 16 seats it contested in 2021 polls, was understandably upset with the DMK’s “high-handedness” and protested against the move. Even as the dust over Jagathrakshakan’s visit is yet to settle down, DMK’s Puducherry unit leader Siva has now demanded more seats for his party this election.

“We contested 13 seats and won six. And we need more seats this time. This is our right,” he said, prompting a sharp response from Congress leaders.

Congress MP from Tamil Nadu Manickam Tagore, who has been at the forefront of demanding respect for his party from the DMK, said how a party with just 8 percent of votes can demand more seats than Congress which commands over 26 per cent of votes.

“This is not done. There has to be respect for all parties in any alliance,” the MP said.

Sources told DH that the DMK’s demand for more seats in Puducherry could be a “pressure tactics” to ensure that the Congress falls in line in Tamil Nadu.

“There seems to be a lot of confusion in the alliance which is not good especially in the run-up to polls,” a senior Congress leader said, adding that if the Congress-DMK works in synergy, the alliance can easily defeat the NDA government led by Chief Minister N Rangasamy, who is facing anti-incumbency.

The leader said both parties should come to an agreement at the earliest to end the confusion and launch seat-sharing negotiations. Congress and the DMK are continuing to iron out their differences in Tamil Nadu with the national party demanding about 36 seats and the Dravidian party ready to offer about 27 to 28 seats along with a Rajya Sabha berth.

Though back-channel talks are on, the two parties will formally launch talks when the DMK constitutes the committee to talk to alliance partners.