CHENNAI: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu has thrown up a politically sensitive dataset exposing the booth-level organisational strength of parties just months ahead of the Assembly elections.
The data are now being used by the ruling DMK, which is facing considerable pressure from allies for share in power and additional seats, to illustrate to the parties the ground-level cadre strength it commands vis-a-vis its allies and the rationale for apportioning seats to them proportionate to their booth strength, sources said.
As per the data, while DMK has 68,260 Booth Level Agents (BLAs), alliance partner Congress has 30,850 BLAs, CPM has 3,817, and CPI and VCK have 1,442 and 250 BLAs, respectively. Citing this organisational asymmetry as one of the factors, DMK sources said the party leadership remains firm that any increase in seats for alliance partners, including VCK, CPI and CPM, would only be nominal and no ally would get a double-digit hike.
Party sources added the DMK has decided to nominally increase the seats for Congress, which contested 25 seats in 2021, to 27 seats. While VCK is to get eight seats — a rise of two seats — the CPM and CPI may get the same six seats that were offered in the 2021 elections.
DMK may let MDMK contest on own symbol in 3 seats
MDMK, which contested six seats on the DMK symbol last time, was offered the same number of seats again. However, since the party wants to contest on its own, the DMK is likely to allow them to contest three seats on the ‘rising-sun’ symbol and three on their own.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior DMK leader said that they would increase the seats based on the performance of the parties in the previous elections as well as their organisational strength.
“We do not want to deny seats bluntly. Although we have a cordial relationship with our allies, when we sit at the negotiation table, it is all about what both parties can bring to the table. Now, with the BLAs data, it is easy for us to negotiate and hope they will also understand,” the senior leader said.
“While the Congress’s strike rate improved in the 2021 elections, VCK proved themselves in the past both by securing a good number of seats as well as by transferring their vote-share in the constituencies where they did not contest,” the leader added.
With seat-sharing talks to begin in the first week of February, VCK, CPM and CPI are looking to increase their share to at least two-digit seats. The DMK wants to contest in at least 170 seats directly and targets close to 180 seats under the ‘rising-sun’ symbol.
In the 2021 Assembly election, DMK had contested 174 seats on its own and 187 under the rising-sun symbol — the highest since 1989. DMK’s tough stance stems from the expansion of the alliance with the addition of actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and a few smaller outfits, including Mukkulathor Puli Padai headed by Karunakaran and Kaduvetti Guru’s daughter Viruthambigai’s J Guru PMK.
DMDK, which has been offered six seats and a Rajya Sabha seat, is also in talks with the DMK, sources said. Meanwhile, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan told reporters that the Congress leadership never sought a share in power as was being claimed by some elements.