Tamil Nadu Polls: DMK offers 33 seats to Congress

It looks like the DMK and Congress are on the brink of striking a deal as to seat-sharing in the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections.

A report in The New Indian Express quoted sources as saying that Congress could get about 33 seats to contest in the TN assembly elections in May.

Reportedly, Congress would get one seat in every district and one in Chennai as well. The deal has been conveyed to TNCC president E V K S Elangovan who headed to New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss this with senior members of his party. Former TNCC president K V Thangkabalu has accompanied Elangovan on the trip to Delhi.

On Tuesday, the eight member seat-sharing committee of the Congress held discussions on the next round of talks with DMK reports the daily. Reportedly, Congress will sign the deal the day after Elangovan discusses the matter with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. 

As was widely reported, a week back, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik had come to meet DMK president M Karunanidhi and others in Chennai. The Congress' demand then was reported to be 63 seats. This was the number they had contested in the 2011 polls. But the DMK started to negotiate citing the split in the Congress in Tamil Nadu. G K Vasan started the Tamil Maanila Congress after breaking away from the Congress. The daily reported that DMK started with an offer of 15 seats and now seems to have reached 33.

The daily adds that senior Congress leaders urged the DMK to share more seats stating that DMDK had also not joined the alliance which was expected earlier.