Tamil Nadu: Congress-DMK deal finalised

Chennai: The Congress has got nine seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone constituency in the Union Territory of Puducherry in its ‘mega’ alliance with the DMK for the Lok Sabha elections. This was finalised at the meeting that DMK MP Kanimozhi, who is also the sister of party president M K Stalin, had with Congress President Rahul Gandhi at his Delhi residence on Tuesday evening.

“We are happy with the number of seats that we have got”, TNCC president KS Alagiri told reporters after his meeting with Gandhi. He did not disclose the numbers but sources said the Congress has got nine in TN and one Puducherry.

The party had contested the same number of seats in alliance with the DMK in 2004 and won all of them.

Sources said the poll pact would be signed by Stalin and Alagiri in Chennai on Wednesday. “The talks with the other allies and identifying of constituencies will happen within a couple of days”, said a source.

The DMK-led team will include the MDMK of Vaiko, VCK of Thol Thirumavalavan, the IUML and the two Left parties. The DMK wants to contest in 23-25 seats in the hope of playing a significant role in the next Parliament - just as the AIADMK has been able to do in the current Lok Sabha thanks to Jayalalithaa’s stupendous sweep (37 out of 39) in the 2014 poll.

Sources said the DMK had earlier insisted that the Congress should settle for seven in TN and one in Puducherry but agreed for 10 in all after the PMK jumped towards the AIADMK-BJP side, ending its clever bargaining with both the Dravidian majors to strike the best deal.

At one point of time, during the Indira Gandhi-MGR and Rajiv-Jayalalithaa eras, the Congress and the AIADMK were considered as ‘natural allies’, but the Congress in later years leaned towards the DMK. With Stalin becoming the first ally to declare Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate of the anti-Modi mega coalition, the DMK ties with the Congress have become very strong.