Congress, DMK Announce 'Secular' Alliance in Tamil Nadu to Counter 'Divisive' Forces

DMK in Tamil Nadu on Saturday allotted 10 seats in the state and neighbouring Puducherry to the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. AICC secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Sirivella Prasad told ETV Bharat that the two parties finalized a broad secular alliance whose main purpose is to defeat the divisive forces in the state. Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

Chennai/New Delhi:After several rounds of parleys over the past weeks, the Congress and the DMK announced the INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing for the coming Lok Sabha polls in order to give a message to the rivals AIADMK and BJP.

As per the pact, the Congress will contest 9 seats in Tamil Nadu and the Puducherry seat while the DMK will contest 21 seats. Among the other smaller parties, CPI will get 2 seats, CPI-M will get 2 seats, MDMK will get 1 seat, VCK will get 2 seats, IUML will get 1 seat and KMDK will get 1 seat.

The deal was signed on the day actor and politician Kamal Haasan’s MNM party joined the DMK-led alliance. In 2019 too, the Congress had contested 9 seats and won 8 seats. The alliance had won 38 of the total 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.

“Today we have finalized a broad secular alliance whose main purpose is to defeat the divisive forces in the state. The number of seats in the alliance have been agreed upon. We will contest 9 seats in the state and one in Puducherry. The specific seats to be contested by the party will be finalized in a few days,” AICC secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Sirivella Prasad told this channel.

The seat-sharing deal was sealed after AICC general secretary in charge of organization KC Venugopal and AICC general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Ajoy Kumar met chief minister MK Stalin.

“The deal is a good one and similar to the one the grand old party got in 2019,” said Prasad, adding, “This has been the practice in the state. In 2019 also, we finalized the numbers first and the specific seats later on.” The AICC functionary rejected reports that there were some differences between the DMK and Congress leaders during the seat-sharing talks.

“It is an old and time-tested alliance. The talks were smooth and cordial,” said Sirivella. The AICC functionary played down the recent provocative comments by some DMK leaders related to Sanatan Dharma, which had concerned the Congress leaders.

“The party has already clarified its stand over the Sanatan Dharma issue. I won’t like to get into that debate but I can say that the alliance will counter the divisive forces in the country and will win all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In 2019, the alliance had won 38 seats,” said Sirivella.

The AICC functionary denied that a recent change in state leadership team was aimed at facilitating the alliance. The Tamil Nadu Congress in February appointed CLP leader K Selvaperunthagai as the new state unit chief in place of KS Alagiri and named Rajesh Kumar as the new CLP leader in the assembly.

“Those were administrative changes and not linked to the alliance formation. The Congress will contribute now to ensure the victory of all the alliance partners in the state,” said Sirivella.

According to party insiders, the five-member Congress national alliance committee will now consider the specific seats as per an internal survey and hold talks with the DMK leadership to work out the details of the deal.

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