DMK, Congress reach deal on seat-sharing

The DMK and ally Congress have reached an understanding regarding seats in Tamil Nadu. The DMK has decided to allot 25 seats to Congress for next month’s elections in Tamil Nadu, according to reports late on Saturday. The party will also give one Rajya Sabha seat to the Congress.
The Tamil Nadu Congress had asked for at least 30 seats while the DMK said it would only spare 24, leading to a stalemate. The deal was finalised after the Congress leadership in Delhi got in touch with the DMK’s top leadership in Chennai on Saturday evening, they said.

“After discussion with our high command, we met DMK chief MK Stalin now to finalise the seat-sharing deal. The agreement will be signed tomorrow morning at 10 am,” Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao said, without spelling out the details of the agreement.

With little bargaining power in the state, Tamil Nadu Congress chief KS Alagiri had said this week the “ball is the DMK’s court” when it came to seat-sharing for the elections.

There have been various rounds of talks between the two parties on a seat-sharing pact while Congress chief Rahul Gandhi made several trips to the State to campaign for the polls.

In the 2016 assembly polls, the Congress was allotted 41 seats and it had won seven of them.

“The ball is in their (DMK’s) court. Hence, it is the DMK which has to decide (seat-sharing),” Mr Alagiri had said when asked about how many seats his party had requested.

Replying to a question, he denied the Congress had made a “climb-down” on the number of seats it sought from the DMK.

The DMK, hoping to return to power after being in opposition for 10 years, has allotted three seats to the Indian Union Muslim League and two to Manithaneya Makkal Katchi.

The party’s decision on the Congress comes a day after its rival AIADMK allotted 20 seats to the BJP.

The Tamil Nadu assembly election will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.

This is the first election after the death of two iconic leaders J Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK and M Karunanidhi of the DMK.