After tough haggling that went on for over three days, the DMK-Congress-MMK (Manithaneya Makkal Katchi) finally announced their seat-sharing deal for the local body polls to the 100 wards in the Coimbatore Corporation.
According to an official communication from the DMK headquarters, the DMK would contest 82 wards, the Congress 17 and the MMK one. The MMK would contest in Ward 86 and the Congress in Wards 5, 10, 12, 14, 20, 34, 39, 59, 67, 71, 74, 77, 79, 81, 89, 96 and 97.
DMK sources said that the Congress initially sought 30 wards but that was unacceptable. After some tough negotiations that took place at a hotel, leader’s home and party office, the DMK brought it down to 25 and 20 and finally 17.
The bone of contention was the Congress asking for the wards that the DMK was strong and had secured more votes than its rivals in the 2016 Assembly election and the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Plus, the party was also not willing to give away wards that the DMK represented in the outgoing council.
The DMK sources added that of the 82 names proposed, it had fielded former councillors Karthik Selvaraj, Kumutham, S.K. Anandakumar, K. Loganathan, P. Nachimuthu, P. Rajendra Prabhu, A. Soundararajan and a few others.
The Congress sources said that the party would announce the list of candidates either on Saturday or Sunday and by Monday, they would file nominations.
The DMK sources also said that their nominees would file nominations on Monday.
