After arm-twisting DMK into conceding 63 seats for the April 13 assembly elections, the Congress won the second round on Tuesday by getting to choose the constituencies it wanted to contest.
The Congress had put its foot down on the nature of seats and it took four rounds of talks spread over a week till the DMK ultimately gave in. The party has, for the time being, dropped its demand for an announcement of a pre-poll declaration of power sharing. But it hopes to get a piece of the action once the election results come in.
After releasing the list of seats the party would be contesting, Tamil Nadu Congress president KV Thangkabalu said after the election results come in Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Karunanidhi would take a decision that will make the Congress cadre happy.
"The DMK-led alliance is a formidable force and it would win the election. M Karunanidhi will become the chief minister for the sixth time. Once the alliance wins the election, the aspirations of the Congress men and women ... would be met," he said.
All the 234 seats are winnable for the alliance, he said, refusing to comment on the impact of the 2G spectrum scam. The agreement on seat identification was arrived at on Sunday night but it was formally announced only on Tuesday. The Congress managed to secure seats in its strongholds in south and west Tamil Nadu, though the final list is a mixed bag.
{{/usCountry}}All the 234 seats are winnable for the alliance, he said, refusing to comment on the impact of the 2G spectrum scam. The agreement on seat identification was arrived at on Sunday night but it was formally announced only on Tuesday. The Congress managed to secure seats in its strongholds in south and west Tamil Nadu, though the final list is a mixed bag.
{{/usCountry}}Significantly, the Congress will be fighting for 10 seats in Chennai and its suburbs as also three urban seats in Madurai, where it will have to battle the 2G scam taint in the face of a spirited high voltage campaign by the AIADMK. In Chennai city, the Congress has been given two seats held by DMK ministers — agriculture minister Arcad Veeraswamy and labour minister TM Anbarasan, — who are shifting to nearby rural seats. In all, seven sitting DMK seats have been given to the Congress.