Parties in alliance will work together to ensure that it returns to power: Azad
The seat-sharing deal between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) ended a three-day battle of nerves.
Emerging from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence here on Tuesday, party general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad — accompanied by DMK Ministers at the Centre, M.K. Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran — announced that the two parties had “unanimously” concluded that the Congress would contest 63 seats in next month's Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
“All the parties in this alliance will work and campaign together to ensure that the alliance returns to power,” Mr. Azad said, describing the combination as a “winning alliance.” For the Congress, this was a victory of sorts as 63 was the number over which the negotiations had broken down last Friday and consequently the DMK announced its intention to pull out its six Ministers from the United Progressive Alliance government. In the 2006 Assembly elections, the Congress' share was 48.
Mr. Alagiri said the pact arrived at “was a winning formula.” Asked whether he or Mr. Maran should be given the credit for clinching the deal, he said the party cadres wanted an “amicable settlement.” To a query whether the DMK cadres would work for the Congress during the campaign, given the recent bitterness between the two parties, Mr. Alagiri said: “Definitely. The entire cadre will work for the coalition and we will come back to power.”
Earlier, at the meeting in Ms. Gandhi's residence, two other senior Congress leaders, who played a role in the patch-up, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president's political secretary Ahmed Patel, were present.
However, earlier in the day, things looked shaky as the Congress' trio of troubleshooters — Mr. Mukherjee, Mr. Azad and Mr. Patel — were spotted rushing through the corridors of Parliament, looking grim and uncommunicative.
By late afternoon, Mr. Maran arrived at Mr. Mukherjee's Parliament office. He sat there alone for close to half hour, before Mr. Patel arrived, followed by Mr. Azad and finally Mr. Mukherjee. This was Mr. Maran's second meeting with the Congress leaders on Tuesday. Interestingly, at the second meeting, Union Minister E. Ahamed was also called in. His party, the IUML, is a DMK ally in Tamil Nadu.
It was after this second meeting that the three Congress leaders and Mr. Maran drove down to 10 Janpath to seal the deal in Ms. Gandhi's presence. That session did not take very long, and soon after Mr. Azad, Mr. Alagiri and Mr. Maran emerged to make the announcement on the seat-sharing pact.
However, there was no mention of the Congress' demand that it should be able to choose the 15 new constituencies or its desire to have an agreement on power-sharing.
Keywords: DMK Congress alliance, Tamil Nadu Assembly polls
DMK alliance is quite a formidable one and will win the elections despite the majority of Press claiming it to be a close contest. I think this alliance will win anywhere between 140-150 seats which might even cross 170 seats in case of a wave.
The battle lines for Tamil Nadu Elections are drawn. The Congress could extract 63 seats. Excellent! But for 2G Spectrum, DMK would not have given so many seats. What the party has got is well above its strength. 55 seats would have been the ideal one, as the DMK had already accommodated more parties this time like VCK and KMC. DMK has to contest now in lesser number of seats! It is nothing but a big loss to the image of DMK. . Since all the alliance partners have received more than 'their due share' of seats, they should not now insist that their 'wish list' of constituencies be allotted to them. Even if 50% of the 'wish list' is approved that should be acceptable. As far as AIADMK alliance is concerned, things are still in fluid stage. Two weeks ago there was an appreciation for Dr.Jayalalithaa for clinching an agreement with DMDK.The delay in allotting seats to MDMK, the Communists and others however, indicate that things are not well. ! What is alliance strength of DMK and AIADMK? It is difficultly to predict. Pollsters seem to be giving an overwhelming majority to AIADMK. Nevertheless, the DMK led alliance appears to be ahead of AIADMK not only in allotting seats for parties but also in drafting their manifestos for the elections. More so, this alliance has the advantage of ruling both the State & Centre. There is money, muscle power and the cadres' aspirations to see Dr.Karunanidhi as the 6th time Chief Minister of the state. Therefore, this alliance will have an edge over the AIADMK alliance. It is possible, despite different scams, that the DMK led alliance may win more than 155 seats. DMK 90 seats followed by 26 Congress, 20 PMK, 6 VCK and others the balance. The next big question is who will be the third largest party? The Congress or MDMK. Very difficult to predict now!
Most of the elections in Tamil Nadu had been decisive except the last one.Whenever DMK lost the elections it was total rout.Same will be repeated this time also.AIADMK will emerge successful forming the government on it's own.
All along, many readers of the Hindu and I have been saying that the TN Congress should walk away from the corrupt DMK and other opportunist parties like PMK and stand on its own. Of course, this did not happen. All the threats to pullout of Cabinet ministry by DMK and blaming each other etc are a 'show' and 'tamasha'. This is the height of mockery of democracy. Now let me predict the results of the TN election: DMK with 124 seats contested will win 50. Congress with 63 seats contested will win 25. The rest of the coalition will win 12. Total number of seats by this coalition 87. No chance to form the government. So, obviously, the other coalition with numerous opportunist parties will set up government along with many in-fights going on to grab power. It does not really make a difference for TN people.
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