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Congress-DMK seat-sharing talks in Tamil Nadu hit impasse
The Congress which won 8 seats out of the 41 it contested in the last assembly election wants at least 30 seats this time.
Seat-sharing talks between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress for the Tamil Nadu assembly election on April 6 have hit an impasse despite two rounds of negotiations, leaders of the two parties familiar with the developments said Wednesday.
In the first round of talks last week, the Congress had asked for more than 40 seats while the DMK’s initial offer was 18. In the second round of talks on Monday the DMK made some concessions but wasn’t willing to part with more than 24 seats. There are 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly.
“The Congress isn’t budging from the 35-40 seats range,” said a senior DMK leader privy to the seat-sharing talks on condition of anonymity. “They are holding on to unrealistic expectations. The DMK has to win the assembly elections with a comfortable majority because we have to keep in mind a post-election scenario and save the party from falling like it did in Puducherry. We are not fighting the AIADMK. The real rival is the BJP and they will do anything to gain power.”
He also referred to the BJP "meddling' in government is in other states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The DMK was an alliance partner in the Congress-led government in the union territory of Puducherry. The government collapsed last week.
At least three leaders have said that the DMK is looking to contest on its own a minimum of 170-180 seats in the 234-member assembly.
Dinesh Gundu Rao, AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa, said the Congress wants a fair deal.
"We just want a fair deal that is respectable and equitable," said Rao when asked if the Congress will go at it alone if they do not get a “respectable number of seats”. Rao spoke after reaching Chennai on Wednesday night. He will hold meetings with Congress district presidents and office bearers on Thursday and on Friday there will be a state executive committee meeting.
"Hopefully by then we want to conclude the talks. Let us see what happens,” he said.
Another Congress leader not wishing to be named said that they cannot agree to any number below 30 seats. “At least that is respectable,” the leader said. In the previous assembly election in 2016, Congress won 8 out of the 41 seats it contested. There was an expectation to be allotted the same number of seats this time a well.
“At one point DMK and Congress used to contest an equal number of seats. Our share of seats has been declining with every election. If DMK is offering seats in the range of 20s, then we may as well go at it alone,” he said.
The Congress leader said that a section of the party, particularly the youngsters have pitched the idea of contesting alone but another section wants the alliance to work without hitches. He added that Rahul Gandhi has directed the local leadership to iron out the differences. Congress leaders had earlier said that Gandhi’s campaigns in the southern state had strengthened their vote base.
On Wednesday, state Congress chief K S Alagiri said that the ball is in the DMK’s court.
“We have been together for 15 years...The DMK has to decide how to utilise the ball,” said Alagiri at a press conference in Cuddalore district.
The Congress and the DMK have been in an alliance since 2004 except from 2013 to 2016 when the two parties parted away and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls separately. Both the parties drew a blank in that election.
