CHENNAI: Though DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin told the party’s district functionaries to amicably arrive at seat-sharing agreements, the party’s allies say the functionaries aren’t considering their demands.
The ruling party’s alliance partners are in a hurry to finalise their seat-sharing pacts since the deadline to file nominations for the urban local body elections is February 4. Stalin had promised the State leaders of the allies, including the Congress and VCK, that the DMK’s district functionaries would fruitfully address their wishes.
A district functionary of the Congress told TNIE, “Our State leadership told us to put pressure to ensure we get at least 15 per cent of seats in every local body since our party was promised more than 10 per cent of local body seats when the pact was inked with the DMK for the Assembly election. But now, they are not even listening to our demands.”
He added that before the Congress functionaries could put forward their demands, DMK ministers told them that only a “few seats” would be allotted to them. When asked about this, a senior DMK leader said, “These are initial hiccups. Everything will be settled once the campaign picks up.”
While a few other allies, such as the VCK, are demanding more seats than the DMK is ready to offer, Congress leaders are citing their 2011 poll performance. “In 2011, we contested alone in the local body polls and won 17 corporation councillor seats in 10 municipal corporations. In about 50 seats, we lost only for want of a few votes. Hence, we expect seats as per our party’s strength and local leaders’ influence,” said a Congress functionary.
An MDMK leader, who is unhappy with the share of seats being offered by the DMK, said the margins of victory in local body polls are very narrow, and this should be kept in mind when maintaining ties among alliance partners.
Likewise, in the opposition AIADMK camp, seat-sharing talks went on till 7.45 pm on Sunday, and no pacts were signed. Party leader and former minister D Jayakumar told reporters the talks are proceeding smoothly and he is hopeful the party and its allies would reach an amicable settlement.
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