The ruling DMK on Friday entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the PMK for theTamil Nadu Assembly elections by allotting 31 seats to the party and assuring its support for a Rajya Sabha nomination.
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and PMK founder S. Ramadoss signed the agreement at the DMK President’s Gopalapuram residence here after two hours of discussion.
“I came a happy man to invite the Chief Minister for my grandson’s marriage. I am returning a happy man,” Dr Ramadoss told reporters, explaining the deal clinched between his party and the DMK
The number of seats given to the PMK is the same as the 31 it was allotted in the Assembly elections in the DMK alliance. The DMK contested 132 seats, the Left parties together got 23 seats and the Congress 48.
Though the relationship between the DMK and the PMK was on a roller-coaster ride in the wake of the Chief Minster’s remarks that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was against including the PMK in the alliance, both sides buried the differences and reached an accord.
As things stand now, the Congress can get a maximum of 61 seats. The DMK has 23 seats to spare, as the Left parties are now in the AIADMK camp. Mr. Karunanidhi may not be in a position to part with all of them to the Congress as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) has joined the alliance.
Asked whether the party would seek the same constituencies it had contested last time, Dr Ramadoss said the committee appointed for the purpose would identify the constituencies.
He expressed the hope that the DMK-Congress combine would win the polls in the state.
Asked whether he had plans to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of completion of seat-sharing, he said former Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had already met the Congress leader.
He declined to answer the question on whether the PMK’s bargaining power had come down since the party had to settle for 31 seats though he wanted 45 seats.
“It has neither come down nor gone up. I will meet the reporters separately to explain,” he said.
When reporters recalled his comment in 2006 that the DMK was neither generous nor stingy in allotting seats for the PMK and sought his view now, he said, “I leave it to your interpretation.”
