The Congress has secured 28 seats to contest in this year’s Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, compared to 25 in 2021, besides one Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming biennial elections to the Upper House. On Wednesday (March 4), the Grand-Old Party and the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), its senior alliance partner, formally sealed their seat-sharing agreement at the DMK’s headquarters in Chennai.
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The agreement was inked by K Selvaperunthagai, president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, and M K Stalin, the chief minister of the state and also the president of the DMK.
‘High command took right decision at right time’
Speaking to the media after the signing, Selvaperunthagai said, “There was no delay. The Congress high command took the right decision at the right time. We are happy and fully satisfied.”
Political observers noted that Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay’s recent pitch for “share in power” and “share in governance” did not disrupt the alliance between the DMK and the Congress and that Stalin had also publicly rejected any power-sharing formula outside the alliance framework.
‘TVK couldn’t cause major damage’
Senior journalist Tharasu Shyam said, “Vijay had claimed that ‘share in governance’ was his team’s ball game and that it would shake the DMK alliance to its core. However, I believe it did not cause any major damage on the ground. The TVK factor cannot be considered the reason for Congress getting three extra seats now, when compared to the 25 seats it contested in the 2021 elections.
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“Chief Minister Stalin deserves praise for handling the confusion within the alliance with perfect timing and remarkable patience. The DMK’s overall approach has been widely appreciated by everyone.”
Despite the TVK’s reported attempts to woo both the Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), the Grand-Old Party’s leadership chose to stay firmly with the DMK-led front. It eventually gained three seats to fight in the high-stakes poll.
A senior DMK minister told The Federal that a grand alliance has been formed with 21 parties.
‘BJP, AIADMK have been proved wrong’
“For the past two years, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have been claiming that the DMK alliance would break apart. They have now been proven wrong. In Tamil Nadu’s political history, this is the first time a single alliance has entered elections for the fourth time without breaking apart or weakening, while also successfully adding new parties to the fold,” he said.
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Besides the DMK and the Congress, the ruling alliance heading to the 2026 polls include parties such as the MDMK, DMDK, VCK, MNM, MMK, Left parties, and others.
Tamil Nadu Assembly has 234 seats. The DMK contested in 188 of them in the 2021 polls as against the Congress’s 28. The remaining 21 were contested by four other parties.
The All-India Congress Committee In-Charge for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Girish Chodankar, who was present during Wednesday’s seat-sharing meeting, said similar talks for the Puducherry Assembly polls, which will also take place around the same time, have also begun and will conclude in a few days.
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