Chennai: TNCC president S. Thirunavukkarasar on Monday met DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and announced continuance of alliance for the local body elections amidst efforts by TMC leader G.K. Vasan to get into the DMK fold, besides the mounting pressure from DMK’s rank and file to bring down the share of the national party in seat allocation,
Thirunavukkarasar, who spoke to reporters, before the meeting declined to comment on Vasan’s efforts to join the DMK front and said he could not make any comment based on speculations. An alliance could not be predicted based on a meeting between two leaders, he said and add-ed that no one had announced that an alliance had been formed.
The new leader of the TNCC has an unenviable task of getting a decent allocation for the party in the civic polls. The party is in the third position in the state going by the over six per cent votes secured in the Assembly elections.
However, DMK functionaries are averse to giving a sizeable number of local bodies to the Congress which won just eight of the 41 seats allotted to it. The Congress was given 17.5 per cent of seats in the Assembly and ended up with three per cent of the total Assembly seats, one of the functionaries pointed out.
Giving more seats to the Congress would be an advantage to the ruling AIADMK, which could easily sweep them as it did in the Assembly polls. The allocation to the Congress should be restricted to ten per cent and the seat sharing should be based on winning chances of the parties, he said.
The entry of TMC could also reduce the seats for the Congress, which could not be in a position to force a hard bargain in the local body elections since it had no options left. But, if the allocation of local bodies to it dwindled, its vote share too would come down drastically. The Congress should be in the fray in more number of local bodies to stay ahead of its rival BJP, the PMK and PWA and retain the third position.
The BJP which contested alone in the Assembly had garnered 2.8 per cent votes and had started preparations to register a better show. The PWA parties which secured about 3.5 per cent votes and the DMDK which got 2.5 per cent votes are also in the race. The votes polled in the civic body elections would be crucial for bargaining of seats in the next Parliament elections.
