Seat sharing: Strain in DMK-Cong ties

Inquiries revealed that the DMK men have largely filed nomination in seats allotted to the national party. In some districts, the DMK has kept more than lions share and allotted very few seats to the Congress. The Congress party was equally adamant in some of its strongholds like Kanniyakumari where the local heavyweights of the national party have dared their Dravidian allies.

Seat apportionment in Pudukkottai and Tiruchy districts is a case in point. For instance, only five of the 21 district panchayat councillor seats have been given to Congressmen. Three DMK men have applied for Gandharvakottai union allotted to the Congress. 

In Madurai, seat sharing talks between Congress district president Ravichandran, who is a relative of a sitting Congress MP and DMK district secretary Moorthy was so hostile that the former had walked out of one such negotiation a few days ago. The tables were turned in Kanniyakumari where district (West) president had volunteered to go it alone after the DMK restricted the national party, which won three on its own in the previous election, to two seats.

The scenario in Tiruchy was worse with the national party managing only two of the 28 seats despite the personal intervention of former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president and local MP Su Thirunavukkarasar, who tried in vain to convince an adamant DMK district secretary KN Nehru. 

DMK was learnt to have snatched wards held by Congress for over a decade, prompting the national party members to declare war on their allies in even neighbouring unions there. 

Ironically, it was the same Tiruchy from where voice of dissent against Congress was heard in DMK with Nehru calling the national party a baggage they have been carrying for long, responding to then Chennai Congress district president Karate Thiyagarajan demanding more from the DMK in the local body elections. 

When asked, a Congress senior denied any disturbance in the alliance and said that such discords were common during local body elections in every alliance, but it would be settled locally in a few days.