DMK strikes seat-sharing deal with Congress, allots 25 seats to ally for Tamil Nadu polls

The tie-up comes just before the grand rally that the DMK has planned on Sunday. Congress leader in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Dinesh Gundu Rao, expressed confidence that the DMK-led alliance will sweep the election.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Sunday formalised the agreement with ally Congress for Tamil Nadu Assembly election 2021. The DMK allotted 25 assembly seats to Congress and the Lok Sabha bypoll seat in Kanyakumari, which fell vacant after the death of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar who passed away due to Covid-19 last year.

DMK chief MK Stalin.

An agreement was signed between DMK chief MK Stalin and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief KS Alagiri on Sunday morning.

"We have signed a seat-sharing agreement with DMK. Congress will contest in 25 assembly seats and in the byelection to the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat," Alagiri told reporters in Chennai.

Congress leader in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducheryy and Goa, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Alagiri met Stalin on Saturday. The meeting went on till late on Saturday night during which the formal seat-sharing agreement was reached.

"Congress, DMK, Left, VCK will sweep these elections," Dinesh Gundu Rao said after Sunday's meeting.

The seat-sharing arrangement was finalised just ahead of the DMK's grand rally scheduled for today. Stalin will release the party's 10-year vision document at the rally.

Earlier on Saturday, the DMK hammered out seat-sharing arrangement with its other allies too, most notably the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK. Its chief Vaiko signed the agreement with Stalin on Saturday.

This is the first time the MDMK will contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly election together with the DMK since it was founded in 1994 after Vaiko was ousted from the then M Karunanidhi-led DMK.

"MDMK has joined hands with DMK. The talks went well. DMK president MK Stalin has signed an agreement in which six Assembly constituencies have been allotted to MDMK," Vaiko told reporters on Saturday.

The polls to elect 234 new members of the Tamil Nadu assembly will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.

Ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is contesting the polls in a pre-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan's party Makkal Neethi Maiam (MNM) is also in the fray.