The DMK and the Congress finalised their seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday after two days of marathon discussions held in New Delhi.
As per the agreement reached between the two parties, the DMK has allocated to the Congress ten out of the total 40 seats which are at stake in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Tamil Nadu has 39 parliamentary seats while the Union territory of Puducherry has one.
The details were announced by DMK president MK Stalin and Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik.
“The alliance between the Congress and the DMK was the need of the hour. The Narendra Modi Government at the Centre has let down the people of the country, especially the middle class,” said Venugopal while speaking to the reporters.
Both Stalin and Venugopal expressed confidence over the outcome of the polls and said the front would win hands down.
Stalin said the Congress would wholeheartedly support the DMK candidates in all the 21 Assembly constituencies from where bypolls are due. The allocation of seats for the other constituents in the DMK-led front, the CPI(M), the CPI, the MDMK the VCK and the Muslim League would be announced in days to come. Sources in the DMK said these parties would be allocated one seat each, leaving the Dravidian major with 25 seats.
The AIADMK had formalised its seat sharing with the PMK and the BJP on Tuesday. It is almost certain that the Vijayakanth-led DMDK and the Tamil Maanila Congress led by GK Vasan too would figure in the AIADMK-led front.
Meanwhile, the DMK and its front partners upped the ante against the AIADMK-PMK alliance terming it “opportunistic” and “unholy”. Stalin, while addressing a Gram Sabha meeting at Thiruvallur on Wednesday, said it was out of fear that the AIADMK included the BJP as an alliance partner.
“The Hindutva party has been threatening the AIADMK with criminal cases and CBI raids. Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy and his Cabinet colleagues are facing probes and investigations in scams and corruption charges and they had no options other than allocating seats to the BJP,” said Stalin.
But Narayanan Thiruppathi, BJP spokesman said the DMK has been rattled by the ease with which the AIADMK and the other parties formalised the seat sharing talks. “Stalin is disturbed and that’s why he is criticising the AIADMK-PMK-BJP alliance”, said Narayanan.