DMK to hold meetings with alliance partners to finalise seat sharing

Chennai, Feb 26 (IANS) The DMK, which aims at a clean sweep in the upcoming general elections, will conduct seat sharing talks with its alliance partners on Monday.

The Dalit political party, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), the left parties, CPI and CPI-M and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leaders will hold talks with the DMK leadership led by former Union Minister T.R. Baalu at the DMK headquarters in Chennai.

The DMK leadership will also hold a similar meeting with the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) leadership on Tuesday.

The DMK is adamant on not allocating the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat to the CPI-M for the upcoming general elections.

Sources said that the DMK has told CPI-M leaders that they can contest from Madurai and another seat but not from Coimbatore. The CPI-M State Secretary K. Balakrishnan has however said that the party is keen to contest from Coimbatore.

The CPI is likely to get the Nagpattinam and Tiruppur, the two seats it is representing since 2019.

The DMK has also been holding discussions with Tamil super star and President of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Kamal Haasan. The DMK leadership is keen that Kamal Haasan should contest the elections along with its alliance from either Coimbatore or from one of three seats in Chennai.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) will be contesting on two seats. Party founder Thol Thirumavalan and General Secretary C. Ravikumar — sitting MPs are likely to be fielded again from these seats.

In the 2019 general elections, DMK led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) won 38 of the 39 seats from Tamil Nadu. The party is expecting a clean sweep in the upcoming election by winning all the 39. The party leadership is conducting several layers of screening before finalising on the seat distribution among allies.

–IANS

aal/dan