DMK to fast track seat sharing talks with allies

Chennai: A day after DMK sealed its seat-sharing pact with Congress, the Dravidian major is fast tracking seat sharing talks with other allies.

DMK, with more than 20 political parties in its alliance, has completed the first round of talks with all the parties except DMDK. After a day's break to facilitate Rajya Sabha nominations, DMK is set to resume talks from Friday. DMK leaders said the talks with Congress had delayed discussions with other parties for the last two days. Since the Congress impasse has ended, negotiations with other parties would be completed in a swift and smooth manner, said a DMK leader.


CPI state secretary M Veepandian said they will hold a third round of talks on Friday or Saturday to seal the deal. DMDK principal secretary Durai Vaiko also said that they would be holding talks in a day or two.

DMDK general secretary Premallatha Vijayakant said she would form a seat sharing committee which would commence talks with the DMK panel. ``Now that the Rajya Sabha nomination is over, we will form a panel and hold talks for assembly election seat sharing,'' she said on Thursday.

DMK organisational secretary R S Bharathi said that DMK will commence the second round of talks in the coming days. "With the completion of alliance talks with Congress, a major part of the seat-sharing talks was completed. In the coming days, we will start holding talks with other parties,'' Bharathi told ToI. He said by the time the ECI announces the election dates, DMK would be ready with the candidates list.

MDMK principal secretary Durai Vaiko also said the same. "We are expecting that DMK will call us for talks either on Friday or Saturday," Durai Vaiko said.

VCK, which completed its first round of talks, is also waiting for an invitation from DMK for second-round talks. VCK general secretary M Sinthanai Selvan said they are expecting at least 10 seats this time, 4 more than the last elections.

"Our strike rate was nearly 70%, as we won 4 out of the 6 seats last time. We are now expecting around 10 seats, which would give us a better chance of securing 7 or more MLAs. This will help strengthen the party's growth and meet the requirement (as per the Representative of People Act) to sustain the party's ECI recognition," said Sinthanai Selvan.