NDA seat-sharing talks apace, DMK-led combine's parleys hit roadblock

Chennai: The seat-sharing talks among the AIADMK-led NDA in Tamil Nadu is apace with G K Vasan on Tuesday confirming that “a decision” was made on the number of seats to be allotted to his TMC, while the parleys are not smooth in the DMK camp, it appears.

DMK’s ally, the VCK, has put up an aggressive posture, announcing to contest from three seats in the Puducherry Assembly election and has demanded a double-digit number from the DMK to contest in the April 23 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu.

The seat-sharing talks in the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance have hit a roadblock with the CPI(M) demanding six seats but finally settling for five during the talks on March 23. Apart from the VCK, the DMK is yet to engage a new entrant, the Premalatha Vijayakanth-led DMDK and Actor-politician Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).

The MNM, according to a source in the DMK, is likely to be given two seats and asked to contest on the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol.

According to VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, in Puducherry, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi has been part of the Secular Progressive Alliance for the past several years. “In 2001, we contested in two seats in the DMK-led alliance. In the 2021 elections, the Congress allocated only the Uzhavarkarai general constituency. We accepted it at that time so that the alliance would not face any crisis. But we did not get the cooperation of the alliance parties. We got more than six thousand votes,” he said.

The VCK has demanded three seats to contest in the Puducherry Assembly elections. After a long delay, the number of seats between the Congress party and the DMK was finalised only after the nomination papers were filed, he said.

“The Congress, which is contesting in most seats in the alliance, did not come forward to allocate seats to other alliance parties. The DMK has offered to allocate one seat to the VCK. However, even after the nominations have closed, it is still not clear which seat it will be,” Thirumavalavan said in a post on the social media platform ‘X.’ The Congress party has also filed nominations from all the seats where the VCK and the CPI have filed the papers, he added.

"Our party members have been unnecessarily stressed as they have been kept in the dark …therefore, we have decided to contest separately in three seats where the VCK has filed nominations - Usudu, Nettappakkam and Uzhavarkarai," he said.

The VCK will support the SPA candidates in the other seats where his party is not contesting, he informed.

DMK senior leader and Transport Minister S S Sivasankar exuded confidence that Chief Minister M K Stalin, who is the president of the DMK, will finalise the seats with VCK on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth told reporters here that her party was willing to settle even for "a lesser number of seats" in the interest of the SPA's victory prospects at the hustings.

The DMK has already finalised the pact with the Congress, providing it 28 seats - an increase of three compared to the 2021 polls. The CPI and CPI (M) were given five seats each, Vaiko's MDMK four, while smaller allies KMDK, IUML and MMK were allotted 2 seats each.

Vasan said in a statement that a decision was taken regarding the number of seats to be allotted to the TMC as part of the AIADMK-led NDA in the state, during his meeting with BJP Tamil Nadu in-charge Piyush Goyal in the city on March 23.