DMK likely to allot 25 seats to ally Congress for Tamil Nadu election

The Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar who passed away due to Covid-19 last year.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Saturday moved forward in its ongoing seat-sharing exercise with allies and it is likely to allot 25 seats to the Congress for the Tamil Nadu election. It is also likely to get one Lok Sabha seat in Kanyakumari. The agreement will be signed at 10 am on Sunday.

There have been multiple rounds of talks between the two sides on a seat-sharing pact, while Congress chief Rahul Gandhi made several trips to the state to campaign for the election.

Congress leader in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducheryy and Goa, Dinesh Gundu Rao and TNCC president KS Alagiri met DMK cheief MK Stalin at his residence in Chennai late Saturday night. Rao earlier in the day told HT that talks were progressing between the two.

The Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar who passed away due to Covid-19 last year.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is in alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has nominated its veteran leader Pon Radhakrishnan to contest from this seat. He lost to Vasanathakumar in 2019.

There have been two rounds of talks between the two sides on a seat-sharing pact, while Congress chief Rahul Gandhi made several trips to the state to campaign for the election.

The DMK wants to finalise its seat sharing pacts ahead of its grand rally scheduled in Trichy on Sunday where Stalin will release DMK’s 10 year vision document.

The party's decision on the Congress comes a day after the AIADMK allotted 20 seats to the BJP.

The Tamil Nadu assembly election will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.