The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) has been offered five seats as part of the DMK alliance in Tamil Nadu as talks are ongoing for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. According to a source from VCK, the DMK has offered them five seats till now but the party has demanded that their ally allot them 10 seats, like they did in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2011.
Speaking to TNM, a source in the VCK said, “We want DMK to give us 10 seats since we contested as part of the DMK alliance in the 2011 elections and got 10 seats. We prefer that we get the same 10 seats. It is natural for the DMK to start the negotiation from five seats,” he said.
In 2019, VCK contested the Parliamentary elections as part of the DMK alliance and won two MP seats with VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and VCK general secretary Ravikumar taking oaths as Members of Parliament.
However, in the 2016 Assembly elections, VCK established an alliance with DMDK, Left parties and MDMK under the banner Makkal Nala Kotani (People’s Welfare Alliance) with anti-corruption as the main issue. The alliance projected DMDK chief Vijayakant as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the alliance. However, the alliance lost all the seats it had contested in and did not get back deposits in many constituencies.
Following this, the Makkal Nala Kootani was dissolved and DMDK joined the AIADMK alliance while VCK, MDMK and the Left parties joined the DMK alliance. In 2016, VCK contested in 25 seats and lost its deposit in 22 seats. The party received 0.77% of the total vote share in the state, as per data with Election Commission of India (ECI).
On Tuesday, the DMK is reportedly having talks with the Left parties in the morning and VCK in the evening. VCK sources also expect the seat-sharing talks to be settled by Tuesday evening.