Chennai: The DMK on Wednesday sealed a poll pact with the Congress by which the national party will contest nine seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone constituency in the Union Territory of Puducherry in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
Announcing the Congress score at a crowded press conference at the DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam in the evening, DMK president MK Stalin said his party’s share of seats would be decided very shortly after consultations with the other allies in the large secular front he was trying to forge to take on the AIADMK-BJP front in the state. He refused to indicate the number of seats that the DMK would get ultimately, while saying the Congress constituencies too would be announced later.
Stalin said the DMK would take the decision on the by-elections to 21 Assembly constituencies after the Election Commission announces the poll dates. He dismissed reports that DMDK of ‘Captain’ Vijayakant was interesting in joining the DMK alliance.
The DMK is in talks with the two Left parties, Vaiko’s MDMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), besides indicating its doors are open for other parties too to come in.
Flanked by the Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik in charge of the Tamil Nadu Congress affairs, another AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, TNCC president KS Alagiri and other senior leaders of the Congress and the DMK, Stalin insisted that the negotiations with the Congress had moved in a transparent manner.
"It is a very transparent pact held at the DMK headquarters and not in secrecy at a star hotel", he said, taking a dig at the AIADMK-BJP-PMK deal that fructified at the Crown Plaza Hotel on Tuesday.
Sources said the Congress had earlier pitched its demand rather high, wanting 15-16 seats out of the total 40, but the DMK rightly argued that the chances of the alliance scoring big in Tamil Nadu would be ruined by such over-ambition on the part of the national party that has a low vote share in the Dravidian state. Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi played a major role in convincing the AICC leadership, even meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi at his residence on Monday morning and again on Tuesday evening to clinch the final seat-sharing pact.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, who was part of the negotiation team at Anna Arivalayam, predicted that the alliance would sweep the polls in TN-Pondy. "We are looking at full number of seats from Tamil Nadu, a very strong result", he declared. "We have been having informal talks in Chennai and Delhi the last two to three days. Rahulji has given us clear direction. The country very much needs this alliance to fulfil people's desire for change", he said, reiterating the Congress charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to deliver any of his promises.
"How many people lost jobs in Tamil Nadu because of the Modi Government and this AIADMK Government? We are confident of total score in Tamil Nadu", said Venugopal.
The DMK and the Congress failed to win any seats in the state in the 2014 general elections.
While the Congress had gone alone in that poll, the DMK had VCK, IUML, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi and Puthiya Tamizhagam. The DMK and the Congress have been allies since 2004, except between 2013 and 2016.
