Congress can't bargain much in civic polls

Chennai: The poor performance of the Congress in the Assembly polls is going to be a major hurdle for the national party to bargain for more local body posts as the DMK is likely to give only 10 to 15 per cent seats for the Congress this time.

During the Assembly elections, the DMK parted with 41 seats, which is nearly 17 per cent of the 234 constituencies. But, the party won only eight of the seats, losing about one-fifth of the constituencies it contested. In the total of 98 seats won by the DMK front, the Congress share is less than one-tenth of the alliance share.

If the formula of number of MLAs won by the two parties is applied, the Congress could get one or two Mayor seats and 10 to 15 municipalities. The total number of town panchayats which could be allocated for Congress could be about 40 and the number of district panchayat and union panchayat members could also be about 10 to 15 per cent.

However, with most of the Congress functionaries losing Assembly polls, the party wants to give them opportunities to head local bodies. The party also wan-ts to establish itself at the grassroots level and wants to follow the same formula followed in the sharing of seats for Assembly polls.

If the Assembly poll formula is followed, the Congress could get one-fifth of the seats and it could demand three Mayor seats, besides 25 to 30 municipalities.

The Congress which went alone in the 2011 local body elections polled 4.3 per cent votes, but failed to win any municipality. In the Assembly elections, the Congress had been wiped out in northern districts and delta region of the state. But, it had won six seats in South Tamil Nadu and picked up two in the west. Four corporations — Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Madurai and Dindigul - fall within southern districts.

TNCC chief E.V.K.S. Elangovan had already said his party’s alliance with DMK would continue. The DMK had not announced its decision on alliance for the civic body polls.