Tamil Nadu Assembly Election 2021 | Congress ties up with DMK, reaches 25 seats

The DMK and Congress reached a seat-sharing agreement on Saturday night, ending the days of strong posture by the national party and a threat to pull out of the coalition.

The Congress will contest 25 assembly seats and H.C. In the by-election for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat vacated after the death of Vasantkumar. It will also get a Rajya Sabha seat. In the late night development, party leaders Dinesh Gundu Rao, KS Alagiri and KR Ramasamy met DMK President MK Stalin at his residence.

“We have reached an agreement. We will sign the agreement tomorrow at 10 am, ”Mr. Rao said Hindu After the meeting.

The Congress did not have many options after the DMK refused to accede to its demand for 30 seats. Many in the Congress were talking of being out of the Grand Alliance if the demand was not met. Some leaders even had the option of tying up with actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Nidi Maam as a last resort.

With the wall stressed due to lack of strong options, the Congress settled for 25 seats. Mr. Alagiri told reporters after a public meeting that the seat sharing arrangement would be announced soon. Many leaders told Hindu The signing of the deal on Friday evening was likely only on Monday, as DMK’s mega rally in Tiruchi was scheduled for Sunday.

A senior Congress leader credited the ascent to the lack of better options for the party. “What other options do we have? The other options are not great…, ”the leader said.

In the past week, several Congress leaders were insisting on “dignity for the party in alliances and number of seats”. On Friday, a senior leader told Hindu Back-channel talks were taking place between the two sides.

A source in New Delhi said that the central leadership was sent to the state unit to curb the seat-sharing exercise, though it was given a free hand. The central leadership felt that winning a greater number of allocated seats was more important than contesting more seats.