DMK, Congress, allies discuss seat-sharing for Puducherry local body elections

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Congress, Left parties, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and other alliance partners on Tuesday met to discuss seat-sharing arrangements for the local body polls.

The meeting, held at the behest of the DMK at its office, was presided over by Opposition leader and convenor of DMK’s Puducherry unit R. Siva.

According to political sources, the DMK, unlike in the past, wanted the major share of the five municipalities and 10 commune panchayats, which will go to polls in three phases. In fact, the party wanted to lead the alliance in Union Territory, sources said. The Congress contested 14 and the DMK contested 13 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.

The DMK expressed its desire to contest the Puducherry Municipality, which the party successfully contested in the last local body polls in 2006.

According to the source, Congress wanted to go to the local body polls either as a major partner or alone considering the setback the party received in the 2021 Assembly polls.

Congress leaders attributed the dismal showing in the Assembly polls to the poor handling of seat sharing talks with the DMK. The party could manage to win only two seats while the DMK emerged victorious in six seats.

In a recent meeting held at the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office, which was attended by Congress in-charge for the Union Territory Dinesh Gundu Rao, majority of the functionaries expressed displeasure at the way Congress-held seats were given to the DMK in the Assembly polls. It was for the first time in the recent Assembly polls, the Congress was compelled to part with a good number of the seats to its Dravidian partner in Puducherry.

In Tuesday’s meeting, convened by the DMK, Congress was represented by its legislator Vaidyanathan. Top leaders of the Left parties also attended the meeting. Meanwhile, four petitions were filed in the High Court seeking a direction to the government to ‘rectify’ complaints related to delimitation.

CM meets L-G

In a related development, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Tuesday called on Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Nivas. Though the Chief Minister did not talk to the media, Sources close to him said the local body polls came up for discussion.

The National Democratic Alliance, which is headed by Mr. Rangasamy’s All India N.R. Congress, had its first round of meeting on Monday to arrive at a seat sharing agreement for the local body polls.