DMK finalises seat sharing pact with allies in Tiruchy, Congress unhappy

The final talks with the alliance parties on seat sharing for Tiruchy City Corporation was held in the DMK district headquarters presided by the Minister and Principal Secretary KN Nehru in the presence of district secretary and minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and district secretaries Kaduvetti N Thiyagarajan, Vairamani and M Anbalagan.

During the meeting, Nehru shared a clear message to the alliance parties Congress, MDMK, CPM, CPI, VCK, IUML and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi that DMK contesting in 51 wards and the remaining to be shared among them. He also said that the DMK has to contest in as many as possible seats to have an absolute majority as the party has decided to field its candidate for mayor election after a long year. While the other parties had accepted the decision, the Congress went on bargaining for more seats. They suggested that contesting at least in 12 seats would be a decent factor for the party which had a handful of Congress members in the previous councils.

The alliance party representatives have accepted the decision. Accordingly, DMK would contest in 51 seats while Congress in four and MDMK, CPM, CPI and VCK were given two each while IUML and MMK were given one each.

DMK asks dist secys to send candidates list by Jan 31

The ruling DMK has instructed its party district secretaries to send the list of party candidates for urban local body polls by January 31. In a statement, DMK general secretary Duraimurugan said, “Apart from seats allotted to alliance parties through seat sharing talks, district secretaries/district in charge are being advised to sort out our seats and send a list of our (DMK) candidates to the high command before January 31.” Meanwhile, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan held seat sharing talks with Chief Minister MK Stalin .