Till now, DMK has allotted 54 seats to its allies.
After several rounds of talks, the DMK on Monday signed the seat-sharing agreement with CPI(M), allotting them six seats for the assembly election. The deal was signed by DMK president MK Stalin and CPI(M) state secretary K Balakrishnan at the DMK headquarters ‘Anna Arivalayam’ in Chennai.
Addressing the reporters, Balakrishnan said since they have a political responsibility to make AIADMK suffer a crushing defeat and also to stop BJP from gaining a foothold in Tamil Nadu, they have settled for six seats.
“We will hard to make the DMK-led alliance win in all the 234 constituencies. We formed a third front and contested in 2016, we did that as we thought there is a need for a change. But now we have bigger reasonability to stop BJP from gaining a foothold in Tamil Nadu, the party is a threat to the nation. In Puducherry, with just two or three MLAs, they managed to topple the government. We don’t want such a situation to happen in Tamil Nadu, we don’t want even a single member of the BJP to become an MLA. As far as we are concerned, Tamil Nadu, a secular land which upholds social justice shouldn’t become a field for anti-secular forces,” he added.
The party leader added they will be contesting in their own symbol. Till now, DMK has allotted 54 seats to its allies. Congress has received 25 seats, other allies VCK, CPI, CPI(M), MDMK have received six each. While Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) has received three seats, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) has been provided two seats. DMK is likely to sign the poll-pact with other smaller parties in a day or two.
On the other hand, the ruling AIADMK party which struck the deal with Pattali Makkal Katchi(PMK) in the last week of February, is yet to arrive at an agreement with their ally Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) led by Captain Vijayakant. The talks between the two parties are struggling to make a progress as DMDK had been demanding a higher number of seats than what was offered by the ruling party.
DMDK’s Deputy Secretary B Parthasarathy Sunday said they have scaled down their request to 23 seats from their original demand of 41 which was allocated to them in 2011 elections. Following this, DMDK leader Vijayakant has called for an urgent meeting with the party district secretaries tomorrow at the party headquarters in Chennai.
So far, in AIADMK’s alliance, 23 seats have been allocated to PMK, and 20 have been provided to BJP. The ruling party is yet to finalise the seat-sharing talks with other allies such as GK Vaasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress, Krishnaswamy’s Puthiya Tamilagam, etc.
Both the Dravidian parties have allotted the Kanyakumari by-election seat to the national parties BJP and Congress. On behalf of BJP, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan is set to contest while the Congress is yet to name their candidate. The seat fell vacant following the demise of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar.
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