CHENNAI: In a significant development ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee have finalised their seat-sharing arrangement.
According to an official statement signed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai on March 4, the Congress will contest 28 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu as part of the Secular Progressive Alliance in the upcoming elections.
The leaders also confirmed that one seat will be allotted to the Congress in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
The development comes a day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram held talks with DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin at his residence in a last-ditch effort to finalise the alliance agreement. The DMK had fixed March 3 as the deadline for the Congress to convey its response to the offer.
AICC Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar, who had submitted a constituency wishlist of 35 to 40 seats to the DMK, had earlier stated that the offer of 25 Assembly seats for the 2026 elections was not acceptable.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 234 seats.
The DMK-Congress alliance has won three successive elections since 2019, including a clean sweep of all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry in 2024.