CHENNAI: Amid the continuing stalemate between the ruling DMK and the CPI over seat sharing for the 2026 assembly elections, the Left party on Monday resolved not to accept fewer than six seats. The decision was taken at an urgent meeting of the CPI state working committee held at the party headquarters in Chennai.
The meeting reviewed recent developments in the negotiations with the alliance leader (DMK) and discussed the prevailing deadlock over finalising seat allocation. Sources in the CPI said the party’s state executive committee, which met on Sunday, and the working committee (on Monday) decided to insist on a minimum of six seats, the same number it contested in the 2021 Assembly polls.
“During the last election, given the strength of the AIADMK–BJP alliance, which was then in power in the state and at the centre, the CPI agreed to contest six seats, one of the lowest allocations in the party’s history,” a senior CPI leader told TNIE on condition of anonymity.
The leader said the current political scenario has changed and argued that allocating even six seats wouldn’t help maintain the “chemistry” within the alliance. CPI leaders also cautioned that any attempt by the DMK to reduce the number of seats to the Left party could send a negative message among voters and might be portrayed by the opposition as a “big brother attitude”.
Meanwhile, CPI state secretary M Veerapandian and CPM state secretary P Shanmugam are understood to be in discussions over the seat-sharing talks and the joint demands of the Left parties to the DMK. Sources added that the DMK’s efforts to induct new allies ahead of the polls could risk unsettling existing alliance partners if their concerns are not addressed.