CHENNAI: The Congress has finalised the seat-sharing agreement with the DMK after late night talks held at the Alwarpet residence of DMK president MK Stalin on Saturday. The agreement will be signed on Sunday at 10 am. However, the Congress leaders declined to divulge the number of seats allocated to it.
Apparently, the late night meeting took place after the intervention of the Congress high command from New Delhi.
Congress leader in charge of Tamil Nadu, Dinesh Gundu Rao and TNCC president KS Alagiri and Congress Legislature Party Leader KR Ramasamy held discussions with Stalin for about 20 minutes.
Later talking to reporters, Gundu Rao said, “After discussions with senior leaders of our high command, we met with DMK chief MK Stalin and we have come to an understanding and agreement on seat-sharing. The agreement will be signed at 10 am on Sunday." When asked about the seats allocated to the party, he said that will be disclosed on Sunday after signing the poll pact.
Congress sources told TNIE that it has been allocated 24 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat (Kanyakumari by-election). It is learnt that DMK has also promised to favourably consider one Rajya Sabha seat for the party.
In the 2011 Assembly elections, the Congress contested in 63 seats in the DMK-led alliance. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Congress contested 41 seats in the alliance.