Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026 | DMK-Congress alliance on edge? Decision likely on March 3 over seat-sharing

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK has set a Tuesday deadline for its long-time ally, Congress, to decide on its 25 assembly seats and a Rajya Sabha berth offer as the seat-sharing arrangement for the 2026 Assembly elections in the seat.

If the Congress does not get back by Tuesday night, the DMK is likely to announce candidates for three Rajya Sabha seats and allot one to new ally, DMDK, on Wednesday. In the event of the Congress responding positively, the national party will be allotted one RS seat while the DMK will contest two.

Congress originally wanted the 2016 figure of 41 seats be restored but scaled down its demand significantly. However, the DMK is offering only 25 and at the maximum 28 seats.

The Tuesday deadline has been set since the last date for filing nominations for the biennial elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu ends on March 5 (Thursday).

“In normal course, we are the first party to announce nominees for RS elections, but we are forced to declare the names at the last minute due to seat-sharing for assembly elections. Since the nominations end on Thursday, we can’t wait beyond Tuesday and this has been conveyed to the Congress leadership,” a top DMK source told DH.

The deadline set by the DMK and no response from Congress set off speculation that the national party was preparing to exit the alliance and go with actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK). The Congress has been using TVK as its bargaining chip to demand more assembly seats this election much to the discomfiture of the DMK – the two parties have fought every election, except the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, together since 2004.

Congress sources told DH that while Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi were for continuing the alliance with the DMK, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is still undecided.

“We expect a decision by Tuesday. But the DMK has told multiple Congress leaders that they won’t wait beyond Tuesday for RS seat,” a senior Congress leader said.

Another Congress leader said that the DMK was trying to use the RS election to conclude the deal for the assembly elections, which is not acceptable to the party.

“The current offer is 25 plus a RS berth which is not acceptable to us. We came down from 39 to 34 and we cannot go below this. The DMK has to meet us half way and not use RS elections to seal the deal. We waited for over 80 days for the talks to start and the DMK cannot expect us to decide in three days,” a senior Congress leader said.

Monday also saw the Congress High Command eliciting the views of the MLAs and district presidents on the number of seats the party should contest and the ground reality. “The MLAs were asked whether the party should settle for the seats offered by the DMK or demand more. We are consulting everyone concerned so that they don’t say that they were not taken into confidence,” the second leader quoted above said.

Those clamouring for allying with TVK say this was the time for the Congress to contest more seats and grow the party at the grassroots and the atmosphere in Tamil Nadu will be electrifying if Rahul Gandhi and Vijay appear on the same stage. But a majority of MLAs and MPs are believed to be rooting for continuing in the DMK alliance since the winnability of candidates was higher.

They also believe leaving the DMK just before the elections would not augur well for Congress’ credibility and the party will lose about the support of 30 MPs in Lok Sabha and 10 MPs in Rajya Sabha (members of DMK and its alliance partners) in its fight against the BJP in Parliament.