CHENNAI: Stung by its Left partner, CPI, deciding to scale down the jointly agreed demand for more than six seats and settle for five seats in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly election, the CPM has decided to stay put on its stand while negotiating with alliance leader DMK.
The stalemate with the CPM has delayed the DMK’s negotiations with other alliance partners, including the VCK, DMDK, and Kamal Haasan-led MNM, with whom only one round of discussions has been held so far.
After three rounds of seat-sharing talks, both Left parties had initially declined the DMK’s offer of five seats and sought six or more constituencies for the April 23 Assembly elections. However, much to the shock of the CPM leadership, CPI agreed to scale it down to five seats, and State secretary M Veerapandian signed the agreement in the presence of DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin at Anna Arivalayam on Wednesday.
“After finalising the agreement with the CPI, we approached the CPM leadership. However, they are still firm in their demand for more seats. Talks are continuing,” a DMK source said.
Veerapandian said the reduction in seats might disappoint party workers, but the party had prioritised the larger political objective. “Our politics goes beyond the number of seats. At times, we may step beyond our own claims for the larger political objective of defeating the BJP. But we will never step away from our ideological position,” he said.
Sources in the CPM said the CPI had been discussing with it on a common approach towards the DMK’s offer of five seats. However, the CPI suddenly decided to accept the offer and signed the agreement with the DMK.
A senior CPM leader said the party had not accepted the offer of five seats. “We remain firm in our demand for more than six seats. Let the DMK decide on our demand and call the next round of meetings,” the leader said.
As a result of this, the DMK has not commenced detailed discussions with others, most importantly the long-standing partner VCK and new entrant DMDK. Of these, the VCK is among the key allies for the DMK for several reasons.
The ruling party has faced flak over several issues concerning the Dalit community, most notorious of them being the Vengaivayal case, where human faeces were mixed in a water tank that supplies drinking water to Dalit households in Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district in December 2022. The recent alleged custodial death of Akash Delison, a 26-year-old from the Dalit community, is another case.
The presence of VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, arguably the most respected Dalit leader in Tamil Nadu politics today, is expected to help reduce the sting of the opposition campaign against the DMK.