The Congress appeared firm on its demand for the allocation of at least 30 Assembly seats by the DMK, which heads the Secular Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu. The DMK’s current offer, however, stands at 18.
Several leaders in the Congress echoed the sentiment of being given a “dignified number” of a minimum of 30 seats. None of the leaders was, however, willing to go on record.
After an internal meeting of the TNCC’s top brass on Thursday evening, the consensus arrived at was that anything below 30 seats was unacceptable to the Congress, highly placed sources in the party told The Hindu .
“When the AIADMK is making all efforts to keep its allies intact, the DMK’s behaviour is not appropriate. If two of the most powerful Ministers, P. Thangamani and S.P. Velumani, can go and meet DMDK chief Vijayakant to mollify the party on seat adjustments [a few days ago], why can’t the DMK reach out to its allies?” a senior TNCC leader asked.
Another senior leader said the Congress’s “vote share” would be important to ensure that the DMK wins. He added that the national party was working only to make DMK president M.K. Stalin the Chief Minister. The Congress was not going to get a share in power, the leader said. The Congress leadership expects the issue to be settled by Friday. When asked what option the party had in case the talks failed, all leaders said the Congress would exit the alliance and contest alone. Another leader was of the view that if the Congress exited and fought alone, it could take on the BJP wherever it was contesting and aim to win those seats. Going along with actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam was another option, though it was not the primary one, multiple leaders said.
