Chennai, Mar 9 (UNI) The Congress on Saturday evening clinched the seat sharing
pact with the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, which is heading the Secular Progressive
Alliance (SPA) for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
As per the agreement, the Congress has been allotted 10 seats--nine in Tamil Nadu
and the lone seat in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
It was a repeat of the 2019 template, when the Congress was allotted similar numbers
for the then Parliamentary elections.
The seat sharing agreement was signed by newly-appointed TNCC President
K.Selvaperunthagai and DMK President and Chief Minister M.K.Stalin at DMK
Headquarters 'Anna Arivalayam' today evening in the presence AICC General
Secretaries K C Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik and other leaders.
The constituencies were however, yet to be identified and it would be finalised
in the coming days, sources said.
Elections will be held for 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry
and the poll schedule will be announced by the Election Commission soon.
In 2019, apart from the Puducherry seat, the Congress won eight of the nine seats
in Tamil Nadu, losing the Theni Parliamentary seat to AIADMK candidate, when
former Union Minister and former TNCC Chief EVKS Elangovan suffered a reverse
at the hands of former Chief Minister and now ousted AIADMK leader O.Panneerselvam's
son P Ravindranath.
Theni is the only seat won by the AIADMK-led front that also had BJP as its ally in
that elections, as the DMK-led Front humbled its rival winning 38 of the total 39 seats
in TN and the lone seat in Puducherry.
Earlier in the day, the DMK inked the seat sharing pact with its new ally, the Makkal
Needhi Maiam of actor-politician Kamal Haasan.
As per the pact, the MNM was not allotted any Lok Sabha seat, but has settled for
a seat in the 2025 Rajya Sabha elections, in which the actor-turned-politician Kamal
is likely to elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
Later, Kamal told reporters that MNM was not contesting the Lok Sabha polls and
said his party would campaign for the DMK-led Front in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
With this DMK has finalised the seat sharing pacts with almost all its allies and it
is expected that it would contest 21 seats in this elections--one more than in 2019.
The DMK has allotted two seats each to the CPI, CPI(M) and VCK and one seat
each to MDMK, IUML, KMDK.
(ED : PICK UP SUITABLY FROM MS 3 ELECTIONS-TN DMK-KAMAL).
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