The ruling DMK and the Congress on Monday finalised the seat-sharing pact. As per the electoral pact signed between both parties, Congress has been allotted nine seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in the neighbouring Puducherry.
Congress will contest in Tiruvallur (SC), Krishnagiri, Mayiladuthurai, Cuddalore, Karur, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Kanniyakumari and the Puducherry constituencies as a part of the INDIA bloc headed by the DMK.
Sources say that the DMK leadership convinced Congress to give away a few sitting seats like Arani and Trichy, which are held by Vishnu Prasad and Su Thirunavukkarasar respectively. Also, DMK chose to hold back Theni as Congress’s E.V.K.S. Elangovan lost from here in 2019. Elangovan lost to O.P. Ravindranath Kumar, son of former chief minister O. Panneerselvam. It is said that both Vishnu Prasad and Thirunavukkarasar, might either be allotted different constituencies or will be out of the electoral fray.
The DMK has replaced the three constituencies - Arani, Trichy and Theni with three of its sitting constituencies - Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai and Tirunelveli to the Congress. Sources say that former state chief K.S. Alagiri might contest from Cuddalore.
All India Professionals Congress Chairman Praveen Chakravarthy is the front-runner for Mayiladuthurai, which was once a Congress bastion and won by Mani Shankar Iyer at least twice. The seat could be allotted to Praveen even when there is a difference of opinion in the DMK ranks due to the PTR audio tape controversy. And Tiruvallur being a reserved constituency, sources say that the Congress will field a new face- most likely Sasikanth Senthil, a seasoned bureaucrat from Karnataka who had quit his job to work for the people.
Sitting MPs Karti Chidambaram, Jothimani and Vijay Vasanth are likely to retain their constituencies- Sivaganga, Karur and Kanniyakumari respectively.
DMK to contest from Coimbatore after a decade
The DMK has retained 21 constituencies, after giving 18 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat to its allies- Congress, VCK, CPI, CPI(M), MDMK, IUML and KDMK. The DMK will contest from all three constituencies in Chennai and also from Coimbatore.
Three constituencies in Chennai - Chennai South, Chennai North and central Chennai- are likely to be allotted to the sitting MPs Thamilachi Thangapandian, Kalanidhi Veerasamy and Dayanidhi Maran respectively.
Kanimozhi, being the only applicant to contest from Thoothukudi is most likely to be renominated from the same constituency. T.R. Baalu and A. Raja might also be renominated from Sriperumbudur and Nilgiris respectively.
Also, the DMK will field its candidate from Theni, after a long time. Sources say that it might be allotted to Thanga Thamil Selvan who jumped from the AIADMK.
Coimbatore might pose a challenge for the party as there is no strong leader for the DMK from this region. The DMK had lost in all the 11 assembly constituencies in this region in the 2021 elections. While former minister V. Senthil Balaji was a promising face from the Kongu region, the DMK lost him after the Enforcement Directorate jailed him in a job scam case.
