A little over a day after its political rival AIADMK announced a pre-poll tie-up with the BJP, the DMK formalised its alliance with the Congress on Wednesday. Making the announcement at DMK headquarters, MK Stalin said, “For the 2019 elections, I, the DMK Chief and Congress Chief KS Alagiri have held discussions. We are giving 10 Seats to the Congress.”
Of the 10 seats allocated to Congress, nine will be in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry.
On Wednesday, Congress election in-charge for Tamil Nadu Mukul Wasnik came to Chennai with KC Venugopal, the General Secretary of Congress and met with the DMK President MK Stalin to finalise the final seat-sharing between the two parties.
“The country very much needed this alliance. The country is disappointed at Narendra Modi. What he promised in the election, nothing has been fulfilled in the last five years...We are not first-time allies. Congress and DMK are long-term partners… We are expecting a very good result in Tamil Nadu. We are expecting 100 percent result in Tamil Nadu. We are going to have a very strong victory in Tamil Nadu. In the coming days we will finalise which seats we are going to contest,” KC Venugopal told the reporters.
The DMK allied with the Congress in 1980, 2004, and in 2009 Lok Sabha Elections. It, however, chose to go it alone in 2014 after the DMK pulled out of the UPA in 2013 citing the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.
The VCK, MDMK and the Left parties are also likely to be a part of the DMK-led combine with seat-sharing talks still underway.
The announcement comes a day after the ruling AIADMK and the BJP announced their alliance for the upcoming polls. Union Minister and the BJP’s election in-charge for Tamil Nadu Piyush Goyal announced the decision on Tuesday, flanked by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on either sides.
DMK was also reportedly wooing PMK to join their alliance but could not meet the party’s demand for seven seats in the Lok Sabha polls. Though DMK had planned to give Congress only seven seats as opposed to their demand for 11, with PMK out of the equation, the Congress is all set to grab 10 seats, almost fulfilling its demand.