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The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress signed a seat-sharing pact on Wednesday, March 4, agreeing that the Congress will contest from 28 Assembly constituencies in the upcoming election. The Congress has also been allotted a Rajya Sabha berth. This will be the fourth consecutive election in which the DMK and Congress are contesting as part of an alliance.
The agreement was signed between DMK President MK Stalin and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai, at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai. The pact was signed in the presence of AICC Tamil Nadu Incharge Girish Chodankar and senior DMK leaders.
The development comes a day after Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, held talks with MK Stalin. Chidambaram was deputed after talks between the committee constituted to discuss seat sharing between DMK and Congress hit a roadblock.
Addressing the reporters, Selvaperunthagai said that the Congress high command will announce the Rajya Sabha candidate. “This decision is not late for us. It was taken decisively by the AICC and the DMK. With the guidelines, we have signed the pact.”
TNM in its weekly newsletter 'Powertrip' has earlier reported on March 3, that the DMK's final offer to the Congress stands at 28 Assembly seats and one Rajya Sabha seat, while the Congress is expecting the number of Assembly seats to cross 30.
In 2021 the DMK had allotted 25 assembly seats for Congress and this time around the party had demanded more seats from the DMK. Though the Congress initially demanded 45 assembly seats and 2 Rajya Sabha seats from the DMK, they eventually climbed down.
Earlier, local Congress leaders had also demanded that they must be made part of the cabinet but the power sharing demand was categorically rejected by MK Stalin.