DMK may allot Namakkal to Eswaran's Kongu party

Sources said the DMK has agreed in principle to allot the Namakkal seat to Kongu Nadu Makkal Desiya Katchi’s (KNMDK) E R Eswaran, who is expected to hold a second round of talks with the Dravidian major on Tuesday.

If the DMK allots Namakkal to Eswaran,the DMK might accrue two benefits, for it would help the principal opposition party land anally representing a majority community inwestern Tamil Nadu as well as solvethe ‘symbol’ problem.

KNMDK, sources say, has agreed to contest on the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol, unlike other partners like the MMK and VCK. Both are determined to contest only on a symbol of their own.

While an ‘unrecognized’ VCK has already taken steps to get the ‘Ring’ symbol from the Election Commission of India for the LS polls, the MMK, which has been demanding a seat on par with fellow minority party IUML (recognized), was adamant not to contest on the DMK’s symbol.

However, DMK leaders in the know, asserted that the MMK would be made to contest ontheir symbol if the party were allotted a seat in the alliance.

The principal opposition party has applied rival AIADMK’s formula of persuading the smaller allies to contest on its symbol to increase its overall tally. It was one of the reasons the DMK has planned to restrict prominent parties like CPI, CPIM and MDMK to a seat each knowing fully well that they would contest only in own symbol. Not surprisingly, the DMK had even attempted to persuade Vaiko to contest on its symbol, which, understandably, has not borne fruit so far.