CPI, CPM Finalise Deal with DMK

Chennai: The CPI and CPM, which are part of the ruling DMK-led alliance in the State, signed separate agreements on Thursday to contest in two seats each for the coming Lok Sabha elections without identifying the constituencies, while other allies that have not yet finalized their deals are expected to do so by March 3, even as the rival coalitions led by the AIADMK and BJP are yet to come out with the final list.

CPI State secretary R Mutharasan and CPM State secretary K Balakrishnan visited the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in Chennai and signed the agreements with Chief Minister M K Stalin, the DMK announced.

Of the total 39 constituencies in the State, the DMK has already earmarked 6 seats to allies with the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) led by E R Eswaran and the IUML with its president K M Kader Moideeen already signing agreements for one seat each with the DMK.

While the KMDK will contest in Namakkal and IUML in Ramanathapuram, as they did in 2019, changes are likely in the constituencies to be allotted to the other allies of the DMK. Even the number of seats for some parties has not been finalized with each of them demanding more than what was allotted to them earlier and there are also some disagreements over the symbol in which the candidates will be contesting.

The MDMK, which had contested in the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol, now wants to go with its old symbol, ‘Top’ to the people and is said to be urging the DMK to allow it to choose its own symbol besides moving the court to retrieve its old 'Top' symbol.

The VCK, too, wants to have its exclusive symbol. Last time, while the VCK general secretary Thol Thirumavalavan contested under the ‘Pot’ symbol, his party colleague D Ravi Kumar contested under the ‘Rising Sun’ and both of them won the elections.

This time, the VCK wants one more seat to contest, reportedly to field its new deputy general secretary Aadhav Arjuna, and also to go for a common symbol for all three of them. However, since there is no sign of the DMK willing to give three seats to the VCK and a Rajya Sabha nomination for the MDMK, the talks are continuing.

The Congress, too, is unable to finalise its deal mainly because the DMK wants to cut down the number of seats. Last time the party contested in constituencies and won eight of them but this time the DMK wants to reduce the number and also change some of the constituencies.

With the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) of Kamal Haasan, having agreed to join the alliance in principle, too asking for two seats, one of them being Coimbatore, the DMK seems to be caught in a bind. Since the Coimbatore constituency is now held by the CPM, the Communist party was demanding North Chennai in lieu of it if it were to be wrested out of them.

Since the DMK considers North Chennai to be its bastion, it is reluctant to part with it. So with such differences the talks for seat identification for both the CPI and CPM, too, has hit a cul de sac.

In the other political camps, the problems are different. The BJP, which is out to form its own coalition, has not been able to find any allies other than the Tamil Maanila Congress of G K Vasan, AMMK led by T T V Dinakaran and the splinter AIADMK group of O Panneerselvam. While the BJP wants Panneerselvam to contest in its ‘Lotus’ symbol, he wants to get his own symbol or get back the 'Two Leaves.'

To sort out the matter, the BJP announced a committee headed by Union State Minister L Murugan with six other leaders as members: Pon Radhakrishnan, H Raja, Vanathi Srinivasan, Nainar Nagendran, Sudhakar Reddy and Aravind Menon.

The AIADMK is holding talks with the PMK and the DMDK but both the potential allies are demanding a Rajya Sabha nomination which the AIADMK does not want to accede to, though it was willing to allot the requested number of Lok Sabha constituencies. However, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami had said that the final list would be out once the election dates were announced.