41 vs 27: Congress-DMK seat talks heat up ahead of Tamil Nadu election, says report

Kanimozhi has been leading the negotiations with Congress.

• Congress seeks 41 seats, DMK offers 25-28 for TN polls
• DMK cites more allies, says can't give Congress more seats
• Congress also demands a Rajya Sabha seat from DMK

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Ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly election, the Congress has sought the 41 seats it contested in 2016, while the DMK has stood firm on offering 25 seats, according to a report by NDTV.

The DMK offered the same number it allotted to Congress in the 2021 Assembly polls.

The development comes a day after Congress general secretary KC Venugopal met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and DMK parliamentary party chief Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, she held further discussions on seat-sharing with Congress state in-charge Girish Chodankar at her residence on Monday.

Sources told NDTV that the Congress reminded the DMK of an unfulfilled promise of one Rajya Sabha seat. The DMK is likely to concede to that demand.

The DMK is unwilling to go beyond two or three additional seats for the Congress. “26 or 27 at best, but we can't afford to give more," a DMK insider told NDTV.

Various reports suggested that the DMK brass feels that the Congress lacks sufficiently strong candidates for what is likely to be a tightly fought Assembly election.

Party insiders told NDTV that in 2021, the DMK deployed significant organisational and financial resources to support Congress candidates. This time, however, the DMK is said to be wary of stretching its machinery too thin.

Meanwhile, the Congress has maintained that it delivered a better strike rate in the last election, winning 18 of the 25 seats it contested, while the DMK lost 55 of the 188 constituencies it fought. According to the NDTV report, Congress leaders have even suggested that they should be allotted some of the seats the DMK failed to win. However, Stalin’s party rejected this argument.

DMK sources also told NDTV that the party now has more alliance partners to accommodate, making it difficult to increase Congress’s share. According to insiders, the DMK is unlikely to offer more than 28 seats to Congress.

Stalin also refused to consider the Congress' demand for a share in power if the coalition came to power.

Meanwhile, actor Vijay's TVK is likely to offer around 70 seats to Congress.

Kanimozhi has been leading the negotiations with Congress. She also met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a few weeks ago. DMK MP A Raja was also part of the meeting with Congress leader KC Venugopal and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister TS Singh Deo, according to NDTV.