The fracture in the relationship between the ruling DMK and the Congress in Tamil Nadu over sharing of seats for the coming Assembly election has reached a level where mending would become a difficult task. The seat sharing talks that began a couple of days back, still in a stalemate situation - while Congress has scaled up its demands, DMK has maintained status quo on its offer, simply to accommodate all its allies, especially the new ones.
The bickering between the two parties before elections is nothing new. But this time it has taken a vicious turn with some of the Congress functionaries not only openly demanding a share of power and 41 seats to contest, but also reminding DMK of its corruption that led to the fall of UPA government. There was a call for aligning with actor Vijay’s party TVK and one functionary even met TVK leaders. Upset DMK members threatened to break the alliance. There is anger on both sides as DMK points out it is the DMK cadres who help the Congress candidates win.
After all the furore seemed to have died down and Congress subdued the demand for power sharing in the event the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) won, Congress demand for the number of seats to contest has now resulted in a stalemate. Congress demand now is 39 seats (one each from a Preliminary constituency) and two Rajya Sabha seats to maintain Leader of the Opposition (LoP) status in the Upper House.
DMK is unwilling to relent and offered the same number of seats as in the last Assembly election in 2021 - 25 seats. It offered one Rajya Sabha seat. There are speculations that Congress has opened a channel of discussion with the TVK, as bargaining tactics to get more seats from the DMK, which may up the offer to 27 seats.
Once again, Congress’ backdoor channel with TVK has upset the DMK, but it is unwilling to compromise as it has new allies to provide for.
However, TVK may be reluctant to ally with Congress as there is enough pressure on it from the BJP with CBI cases against it.
Congress cadres in the Nadar community in southern regions are a worried lot with the fate of DMK-Congress alliance left hanging. Nadar support is a major vote bank for the Congress. The BJP is tapping this community. The Congress cadres certainly need the support of the DMK to defeat the BJP, which has strong leaders in Pon Radhakrishnan and Tamiisai Soudararajan.
On Friday, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and ousted AIADMK functionary O Paneerselvam joined the DMK in the presence of Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin. Not that it will make much difference other than strengthening the alliance in a couple of seats. But it will increase the bargaining power with the Congress as the DMK makes a case for taking along newcomers.
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