CHENNAI: After days of tough negotiations, the CPM signed the seat-sharing agreement with the ruling DMK for five seats, one less than the seats it contested in the 2021 assembly elections as part of the alliance.
Talking to reporters after signing the agreement with DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin, CPM state secretary P Shanmugam expressed that the party was not satisfied with the number of seats offered.
However, he said that the party accepted it following CM’s appeal and to ensure that the BJP-AIADMK alliance do get an edge ahead of polls in any way.
As per TNIE's earlier report, Shanmugam had said that neither his party’s executive committee nor the state committee could accept the reduction in seats.
On March 18, when CPI signed the pact with DMK for five seats, CPM’s state committee had decided not to accept fewer than six seats.
Notably, TNIE was the first to report on March 10 that DMK was firm to offer only five seats to the CPI and CPM.
“In the current situation where more new parties have joined the DMK alliance, the Chief Minister requested that it may not be possible to give us the additional seats that we are demanding,” Shanmugam told the media on Monday.
He said contesting in a larger number of seats was as important for CPM, as it was to be intact in the alliance.
“We are not satisfied with the numbers, but since continuing the negotiations for long would hinder election preparations, we have decided to conclude the matter,” Shanmugam added.
Significantly, CPM had initially demanded a two-digit seat share, but later reduced its demand to a nominal increase of six seats. After DMK started negotiating with an offer of four , CPM negotiated hard to retain at least six.