Chennai: The opposition alliance in Tamil Nadu, led by the DMK, on Sunday announced seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming assembly polls, giving 25 seats to the Congress after several rounds of negotiation.
The agreement was finally arrived at late on Saturday night and was formally announced in Chennai on Sunday by AICC General Secretary Dinesh Gundu Rao and Tamil Nadu Congress Chief KS Alagiri.
"We have signed a seat-sharing agreement with DMK. Congress will contest in 25 assembly seats and in the byelection to the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat," Alagiri said after a meeting at DMK headquarters in Chennai.
Gundu Rao said Congress, DMK, Left, VCK alliance will sweep the elections.
Earlier on Saturday night, Rao and other senior Congress leaders rushed to DMK president M K Stalin's house to finalise the deal as stalemate continued. The development came just ahead of the DMK's mega conference in Tiruchi district scheduled for Sunday where Stalin is slated to release a 10-year vision statement for Tamil Nadu.
The DMK has also convinced MDMK’s Vaiko to not only agree for allocation of six seats but also to field the candidates on the ‘Rising Sun’ symbol. The alliance has already sealed a deal with UML (3), MMK (2), VCK (6) and the CPI (6). Now the CPM is the only ally that needs to be convinced. The CPM has been offered six seats but wants to be placed slightly ahead of the CPI in numbers.
The 234-members Tamil Nadu assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.
Ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is contesting the polls in a pre-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), PMK, Vijayakant’s DMDK and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). The AIADMK has so far finalised deals with the PMK (23 seats) and BJP (20) while it is yet to allot seats to other allies.
This is the first assembly election in Tamil Nadu being held after the death of Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi.
