Chennai: The seat-sharing talks among constituents of the People’s Welfare Alliance - MDMK, VCK, CPI (M) and CPI - is almost over with each party expecting to get 25-30 seats each.
“The 110 seats allocated to the four parties in DMDK-PWA Front sea will be almost divided equally. Each party will get between 25 and 30 seats. There will not be a huge disparity among four in sharing seats,” a senior leader of PWA. A formal announcement will be made on March 31, said the leader.
After signing the seat-sharing agreement with DMDK on March 23, the four parties held three rounds of talks to decide on the number of seats to be contested by each party. The third round of the seat sharing talks was held on Sunday at CPI (M) office in T. Nagar in the presence of MDMK general secretary Vaiko, VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan, CPI (M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan and CPI state secretary R. Mutharasan.
According to sources, all the four parties had initially claimed from 30 to 40 seats each but they had come down on their demands during negotiations. “Unlike other alliances, there is a very cordial relationship among leaders of all four parties and they want to settle all issues amicably. The number of seats will be settled in the coming days with four party leaders campaigning together in Sout hern districts from March 28 to 30,” a PWA leader privy to talks told DC.
Interestingly, after settling on the number of seats, the four parties have to identify the seats to be contested by each parties before commencing its seat identification talks with DMDK. “Only after we agree on seats to be contested by PWA constituents, we will be able to begin negotiation with DMDK,” a PWA leader said, adding that seat identification would be much tougher task than arriving at number of seats to be contested by each party.
