Congress To Start Seat Sharing Talks In DMK Alliance

The arrival of the team, which is scheduled to meet leaders of the TNCC at Sathyamurthy Bhavan in the forenoon, in Chennai has more or less confirmed the continuation of the present alliance and put to rest all speculations on the Congress looking out for a tie-up with the fledgling Tamil Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of Vijay.

After seeking the views of the Tamil Nadu leaders on the electoral alliance at the meeting on Tuesday, the five-member committee headed by Chodankar is expected to call on Chief Minister M K Stalin at the DMK headquarters to discuss seat sharing and constituency allocation.

It is said that the section of the Congress leader in Tamil Nadu that believed in their party growing considerably in the State had earlier advocated a tough bargain with the DMK, demanding more seats – in the 2021 Assembly polls they were allotted 25 seats of which they won 18 – to contest and also for a share in power.

However, it is said that now that the party has received a drubbing in the Bihar election, a section of the TNCC leaders would like to just win some seats in the State Assembly rather than rattling the alliance by making high demands

For quite some time, some State Congress leaders in the State had been pressing for more seats and Chodankar even went to the extent of saying that the party was capable of winning 125 seats in the State. Those apparent rebellions against the DMK were attributed to the possibility of aligning with the TVK for the elections.

That possibility, fuelled by Congress Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi calling up Vijay from abroad after the September 27 stampede at Karur and assuring to continue the talks after returning to India, dissipated with the passage of time and now the TNCC leaders had reconciled to continuing in the DMK alliance.

All the TNCC leaders, including Congress leader in the State Assembly S Rajeshkumar, who were speaking out against the DMK recently have stopped the criticism in the open. Since Rajeshkumar is also part of the five-member committee, whose other members are TNCC president K Selvaperunthagi and two other AICC leaders Suraj M N Hegde and Nivethik Alva, the meeting could see State leaders expressing their misgivings at the meeting in Wednesday.

Once the DMK firms up its alliance with the Congress, which may start the bargain by pitching for 50 seats, it would open conversations with other allies like the VCK, CPM, CPI, MDMK, MMK, IUML and so on and wrap up the electoral coalition ahead of the others to take the advantage of starting the constituency-wise campaign for the 2026 Assembly polls.

The alliance is also expected to be strengthened by roping in the PMK faction, led by the party founder S Ramadoss. Though the official PMK with Anbumani Ramadoss holding the reins as per Election Commission of India records is part of the AIADMK-BJP alliance, the party founder wants to go with the DMK.

PMK former president G K Mani is said to be taking the initiative for the tie-up and there are also indications of the DMDK with Premalatha Vijayakanth at the helm drifting towards the DMK coalition.