The DMK-Congress seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Lok Sabha election began in Chennai with the national party pitching for “more than” the nine seats allotted to it in 2019 under the Secular Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu. The party had won eight seats as part of the DMK-led front five years ago, and lost in Theni. It, however, dismissed media reports that it had sought 21 seats.
Congress leaders described the meeting held at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters, as “positive and pleasant”.
The Congress delegation included the All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Ajoy Kumar; senior Congress leaders Mukul Wasnik and Salman Khurshid; TNCC president K.S. Alagiri; and Congress Legislature Party leader K. Selvaperunthagai.
The DMK was represented by former Union Ministers T.R. Baalu and A. Raja; Ministers K.N. Nehru, M.R.K. Panneerselvam and I. Periyasamy; former Minister K. Ponmudy; and Rajya Sabha member Tiruchi Siva.
Earlier, the Congress contingent met the party’s Lok Sabha MPs and senior leaders at its State headquarters, Satyamurthy Bhavan, to get an understanding of where the party stood in Tamil Nadu, and what the expectations of its cadre were.
Senior Congress leaders said that the meeting with the DMK was ‘smooth’, and that they were not expecting any serious bump in the road.
When asked if they had demanded a specific number of seats, Mr. Alagiri said, “Our leaders from New Delhi spoke about the elections with the DMK, and Mr. Wasnik already knows the DMK leaders. The seat-sharing talks were smooth. The number of seats we had sought will be a matter between us and the DMK. We have decided not to discuss it in public. We discussed how to win all the 40 seats in the State, and the kind of candidates whom we should give seats to.”
Congress sources said that the party had expressed its desire to get more seats than what was allotted to it last year. In addition to nine seats in Tamil Nadu, it had contested the lone Puducherry seat in 2019.
A couple of days ago, DMK Minister Raja Kannappan criticised the Congress, saying TNCC leaders and cadre do not work on the ground, and the party exists only to get seats before elections.
“We had a long discussion with them [DMK] on how to contest the Lok Sabha election. We discussed how the two of us, along with other like-minded parties in an alliance in Tamil Nadu, can move forward together to regain the confidence of the people and ensure that the dispensation at the Centre today, which has posed a serious challenge to the Constitution and our democratic polity, is unseated,” Mr. Wasnik said.
He said that the Puducherry seat was also discussed, and “very soon, we will have another meeting to take a decision on sharing seats”.
Despite the perceived setback to the INDIA bloc due to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar switching to the NDA, Karur MP S. Jothimani said that there was no pressure or urgency to finalise the alliance.
“The INDIA bloc is an ideological alliance. Only those leaders who are brave and honest can take the alliance forward. Other issues can be resolved. There are no problems that cannot be solved in politics,” she said.
