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The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Indian National Congress announced on February 20 that they would be contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls together as an alliance.
DMK chief MK Stalin announced that the Congress will be contesting ten parliamentary seats –nine from Tamil Nadu and one from Puducherry. Stalin also told media persons that the total number of seats that DMK will be contesting will be revealed after talks with other alliance partners. The number is pegged between 20 and 25 seats.
The announcement comes a day after the AIADMK and BJP announced their tie-up for the polls.
Tamil Nadu has a total of 39 Lok Sabha seats. In 2009, Congress and the DMK had fought the Lok Sabha polls together – with the former contesting from 15 seats and the latter contesting from 22 seats. The two parties had contested separately in 2014.
DMK chief MK Stalin's sister Kanimozhi is also said to enter the arena this year. On February 19, DMK’s Rajya Sabha MP and senior leader Kanimozhi met Congress President Rahul Gandhi to discuss seat-sharing.
Gandhi, then, met senior Congress leaders of the state to discuss the alliance. Former union ministers P Chidambaram, EVKS Elangovan, state unit chief KS Alagiri and senior leaders Thirunavukarasar and Ramasamy attended the meeting.
Later in the day, Kanimozhi met Gandhi again to finalise the alliance.
In December 2018, days after the Congress wrested three ‘Hindi-heartland’ states from the BJP, DMK President MK Stalin had vowed to make Gandhi as the next Prime Minister.
Days later, he defended his statement amid murmurs in the Opposition ranks about reservations over the proposal.
The DMK had faced a rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, failing to win a single seat. Led by the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, AIADMK had won 37 out of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. BJP and its ally PMK had bagged a seat each. BJP’s ally All India NR Congress had won the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat.
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