TMC fate in Captain Vijayakanth's team will be known today

Chennai: The fate of G.K. Vasan and his TMC in the state elections will be known on Saturday when the outcome of his efforts to clinch a poll pact with the DMDK-People’s Welfare Alliance will be known. He is also talking to the BJP, according to that party's state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, though none from the TMC has confirmed this.

"The TMC leadership is talking to the DMDK chief Vijayakanth as they both enjoy good rapport. We are likely to give 30 seats to the TMC, of which 24 will be from the DMDK's quota of 124. The final scores will be out early tomorrow", a senior PWA leader told DC.

It appears that the MDMK will get 29 while the two Left parties and the VCK will each get 25 seats, leaving 100 for Captain's DMDK. MDMK chief Vaiko had announced allotment of one seat each to two fringe groups — Tamilar Munnetra Padai and Tamil Puligal Iyakkam - which will contest in his ‘Top’ (Bombaram) symbol.

Despite the fact that the main constituents of the PWA - MDMK, VCK and the Left - have been holding hands for considerable time, conducting joint press conferences and public rallies related to the May 16 state polls, they took considerable time in hammering out the seat-sharing arrangement in their alliance formed in November last year (The four parties had come together to share political space on all major issues in the state even in June that year).
“Our alliance is very new and so it's natural that we could take a little extra time in understanding the compulsions of each of the PWA constituents.

But then, we have never said or done anything to hurt or even embarrass anyone within the alliance”, said a PWA senior trying to explain the delay in arriving at the seat-sharing formula. "Even this present delay is because our talks with the TMC have not yet been completed. We will finish this tomorrow and launch on campaigning seriously”, he added.

Saturday may not see the end of the DMDK-PWA alliance negotiations even though the constituents may agree on the number of their seats. “Identifying the seats for each of the constituent party is the next tough task but we will handle that. The significant factor is the unity among us as we discuss and take joint decisions”, another CWA functionary said, requesting anonymity.

DMDK-PWA coalition coordinator Vaiko had already announced that the first list of candidates of the alliance would be declared in its maiden election rally at Mamandur near Chengalpattu on Sunday. It is highly unlikely for the alliance partners to identify seats for the each parties with barely a day left for the rally.  Besides, DMDK has convened its parties executive committee meeting on Sunday morning after the rebellion by 10 senior party functionaries led by V.C. Chandrakumar.

The dissidents have questioned the party alliance with PWA and also wanted it to tie up with DMK for the polls. The rebel leaders also called for a parallel meeting on the same day at T. Nagar.