The deadlock over seat-sharing between the Congress and the DMK continued on Monday, a day after AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal called on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at the latter's residence on Chithranjan Avenue in Chennai. The Congress, which had been insisting on power sharing in the state, now appears to have abandoned that stance, with its sole demand focused on increasing the number of seats.
After Venugopal met with Stalin, AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar and his team called on DMK deputy general secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi to discuss seat sharing. During the meeting, sources from the DMK and Congress said that the national party presented a long list of demands, including an increase in the number of seats, Rajya Sabha berths both now and in 2028, as well as representation in local bodies. The talks are likely to continue today.
With six Rajya Sabha berths falling vacant in April this year, the DMK will be nominating four members. Of these, one seat has been agreed to go to Vijayakanth’s DMDK, which recently joined the Secular Progressive Alliance. Sources in the DMK said that the Congress has requested a Rajya Sabha seat for its senior leader, Pawan Khera, as the nomination for the biennial election is drawing close. Also, the national party is looking to retain senior Congress leader P.Chidambaram’s RS berth, allocated under the DMK quota, which will fall vacant in 2028.
While the DMK leadership was initially hesitant, sources say the decision was approved after deliberations. Congress also demands representation in local bodies and mayoral positions, which was readily agreed upon. Though the DMK is ready to offer more mayoral positions and local body representations, the Congress’s demands to have a strong presence in all the local body committees and also the welfare boards have led to a block in the alliance talks.
The deadlock over finalising the number of assembly seats continues as the DMK is unwilling to offer the Congress more than 30 seats. According to highly placed sources, the national party wants to contest from all the assembly constituencies in the 10 Lok Sabha seats it won in 2024, which will be nothing less than 60 constituencies. The Congress party, which contested 25 assembly seats in 2021 as part of the DMK alliance, managed to win only 18 constituencies.
Incidentally, the Congress is in no mood to take a confrontational approach with the DMK, as it seeks greater representation in the upper house—a goal achievable only with the DMK’s support. Venugopal’s meeting with Stalin on Sunday was an effort to mend the relationship between the two parties, which had been strained over the past two months due to public sparring by the leaders of the DMK and Congress.
During the meeting, Venugopal did not bring any message from the high command regarding power sharing. But an increase in the number of seats, the Congress feels, could help them demand power sharing post-elections.