CHENNAI: With the ruling DMK firm on not allocating more than five seats for the CPM in the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), CPM confirmed that they would continue in the SPA irrespective of the number of seats. The party is likely to take a final call on the number of seats during its executive committee meeting, to be held on Monday morning.
Stating that they would continue in the SPA for the 2026 Assembly election, CPM state secretary P Shamugam, after meeting Chief Minister MK Stalin at Anna Arivalayam, told reporters that they would finalise the numbers after the executive committee meeting.
“There is no confusion in the alliance. The confusion is only on the number of seats to be allocated to the party. All this while, we have been talking to the DMK’s committee with regard to seat-sharing. This is the first time we met the chief minister to discuss this, and he has offered us five seats. We will convene our executive committee and take a call,” Shanmugam told reporters.
The meeting with Stalin took place after the CPM’s state committee and executive committee held back to back marathon meetings, which began at 11 am on Saturday and concluded in the wee hours of Sunday.
“About 80% of the state committee members were firm on not accepting anything less than six seats, which the party contested in the 2021 Assembly election. The rest were of the opinion to accept the five seats to keep the alliance smooth and defeat the neo-fascist BJP,” a CPM source, who is a part of the state committee and executive committee, told TNIE.
The state committee has now entrusted the party’s executive committee to take a final call on the number of seats.
“Earlier, the party’s state committee had even recommended contesting alone in limited seats and supporting the SPA in the rest of the constituencies if their demand for six seats was not met by the DMK. However, it would go against the decision of the Politburo, where it was decided to support the DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu to defeat the neo-fascist forces,” a state committee member told TNIE.