DMK on Tuesday announced that Congress would contest in 10 LS seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Union Territory as part of its alliance.
A day after AIADMK-BJP entered into an alliance in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the Lok Sabha polls, DMK on Tuesday announced that Congress would contest in 10 LS seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Union Territory as part of its alliance.
Congress would contest in nine seats in Tamil Nadu and lone Puducherry seat in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, DMK president MK Stalin announced after signing a seat-sharing agreement with Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri on Tuesday evening.
"We have decided only on the number of seats for the Congress but the talks on the identification of constituencies would be held the only finalisation of seat-sharing talks with other allies," he said, adding that talks would begin from tomorrow with other allies who were having friendly ties with his party for the last two years.
Apart from Congress, the DMK-led alliance comprises of CPM, CPI, MDMK, VCK, IUML, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) and caste outfit Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK).
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said his party is happy to have reached a seat-sharing agreement with DMK, a long-term ally. "We are expecting a very good result from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to throw out the Modi government out of power. Congress is fully satisfied by the deal with DMK," he said, recalling his party's relationship with DMK even during the times of late M Karunanidhi.
Stalin was the first leader from the alliance parties to propose Congress president Rahul Gandhi's name as the Prime Minister candidate for the 2019 LS polls.
To a question on any talks with Vijayakanth's DMDK, Stalin replied in negative saying no talks were being held. DMDK, which was holding talks with AIADMK-BJP alliance, has not joined the combine as the ruling party in the state is refusing to concede its demand for seven seats and a Rajya Sabha seat. A senior AIADMK leader and State Minister P Thangamani held talks with DMDK leader LK Sudhish on Tuesday after BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal talk with the former failed to break the ice on Monday.
A senior DMK leader said that his party would contest in at least 24 seats and allot the rest of seats to its allies. CPM is expected to get two seats while CPI, MDMK, VCK and IUML will be allotted one seat each. MMK and KMDK likely to be allotted a seat each with a rider to contest in the DMK's rising sun symbol, sources said.
A senior CPI leader said that so far no talks were held by DMK on the seat sharing. "We don't know how media is talking about the seat allocation when no talks were held," he said, adding that both CPI and CPM had contested two seats each in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls in the DMK-led alliance.
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