DMK seals poll pact with CPI, CPM

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Thursday sealed the poll pact with CPI and CPIM, allotting two seats each to both the communist parties for the ensuing Parliamentary election. A formal seat sharing agreement was signed between Chief Minister M K Stalin and secretaries of the CPI (R Mutharasan) and CPM (K Balakrishnan) at Anna Arivalayam after the third round of negotiation between the allies.

However, the constituencies of the two communist parties were not finalised on Thursday.

Talking to media persons after the meeting, Mutharasan said, "CPI believes that the country is more important than who gets how many seats and what seats. Accordingly, two seats have been allocated to CPI. The Chief Minister and I inked the pact. We will discuss and announce the constituencies later."

Echoing similar views, CPM state secretary Balakrishnan said, "We sought more than the two seats we had contested in the previous election. DMK informed that it was not possible to increase it owing to the arrival of new allies to the fold. Agreement has been signed for allotting two seats to CPM on that basis."

If sources in the INDIA bloc are to be believed, constituencies of CPM were getting delayed due to the reported demand of actor Kamal Haasan's Makkal Neethi Maiam which has been holding secret parleys with the DMK for Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat. Speculation is rife that the DMK itself was very much interested in fielding its own candidate in Coimbatore, a key area in the western region where the DMK has been weakest for over two decades now in Assembly polls. Likewise, the DMK is understood to be keen on retaining either Tiruppur or Nagapattinam, seats currently held by the CPI which has also proposed Mayiladuthurai and Tenkasi as alternatives to Tiruppur. Curiously, the CPI seems to be in no mood to concede Nagapattinam, a left bastion.

MDMK seeks formal commitment from DMK on RS

Significantly, deadlock continued in the talks between DMK and MDMK with the latter standing firm on its demand for a LS and RS seat each.

MDMK presidium chairman Arjun Raj who led the negotiation team did not mind disclosing the demands to waiting media. Arjun Raj said, "We sought a Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha nomination like last election. They offered to get back to us after consulting their (DMK) leadership." Asked if the MDMK would contest in DMK's Rising Sun symbol like in 2019, Arjun Raj categorically said, "We will only contest in our symbol." DMK sources privy to the negotiation revealed to DT Next that the MDMK wanted both the LS seat and RS seat offers formalized put on paper like last time.

However, the DMK was learnt to have insisted that it would formalize agreement for one LS seat now and the RS nomination could be publicized when the vacancy arose for the upper house of the Parliament later. MDMK was understood to be demanding Congress sitting seat Tiruchy for Vaiko's son Durai.