Congress and DMK begin seat-sharing talks for polls

Commencing preliminary seat-sharing talks with the DMK on Thursday, the Congress is learnt to have pitched for over 50 seats for the upcoming Assembly election.

However, the senior companion is believed to have gently pointed to the poor strike price of the Congress within the 2016 Assembly election, when it gained simply eight of the 41 allotted seats.

The DMK additionally conveyed to the Congress delegation that it wished to contest as many seats as doable to safe a cushty victory. “We told them that a narrow victory may lead to anything in today’s political situation. We have witnessed the BJP’s game in Puducherry,” a DMK supply stated.

However, the Congress is buoyed by the response its former president Rahul Gandhi drew throughout his two latest visits to Tamil Nadu. It has been engaged on figuring out doubtlessly robust constituencies from the place it could possibly contest.

When Congress leaders defined Mr. Gandhi’s private curiosity in Tamil Nadu, DMK leaders countered that nobody was enthusiastic about witnessing what occurred in Bihar and different States, the place the Congress did not register a giant victory.

Dinesh Gundu Rao, AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu, who was a part of the Congress delegation, when contacted, stated the occasion had sought a sure variety of seats from the DMK, based mostly on an evaluation achieved in the previous few months.

‘Fruitful meeting’

“We don’t want to go into the numbers. The meeting with DMK leaders was fruitful and friendly. We have sought a number of seats. Let us see,” he informed The Puucho. The numbers will likely be finalised as talks progress.

Another Congress chief stated the occasion was asking for a better variety of seats because it didn’t wish to be pushed right into a nook to just accept only a few seats from the DMK.

When requested if the Congress had a sure threshold to which it was prepared to go down, a pacesetter stated they hoped it will not come all the way down to such a state of affairs. “The alliance is quite strong and is in a position to win the poll. Things will be sorted out,” the chief stated.

The DMK staff was represented by basic secretary Duraimurugan, treasurer T.R. Baalu and girls’s wing chief Kanimozhi.

Apart from Mr. Rao, the Congress delegation comprised former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, TNCC president K.S. Alagiri and Congress ground chief within the Assembly K.R. Ramasamy. Mr. Duraimurugan stated the overall council assembly of the occasion to debate the Assembly ballot can be held on March 7.