PMK to join DMK-Congress combine for Tamil Nadu polls
By IANSSunday, January 30, 2011
NEW DELHI - Bracing up for a tough electoral battle in the coming Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the DMK Sunday said it was successful in wooing the PMK into its existing alliance with the Congress to take on arch-rival J. Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK.
DMK president M. Karunanidhi, who arrived in the capital on a three-day visit, told reporters that PMK would fight the assembly elections as part of the DMK-Congress combine and that he was here to discuss the seat-sharing arrangements with the Congress leadership.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), PMK and the Muslim League will be part of the alliance, he said in reply to a question if there were other parties that would join the DMK-Congress combine.
This is the first clear indication that the parleys the DMK had with the PMK on joining the alliance to contest the polls for 234-member assembly were successful.
Karunanidhi is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday to discuss the elections and the political situation in the state and the formula for sharing seats with the new entrants in the alliance.
“I am here for poll-related discussions. I will be meeting the prime minister and the Congress chief to discuss the seat-sharing formula, he said.
The DMK and the Congress have already declared that they will fight the elections as an alliance this time too, just as they did in the 2006 polls.
Among the issues that Karunanidhi would discuss with Manmohan Singh and Gandhi are the number of seats that each of the parties would contest and what formula should be adopted if more parties join their combine.
“I will hold talks on the number of seats that the two parties will contest and the list of constituencies that each side will like to put up a candidate, he added.
After the alliance talks here with the Congress, Karunanidhi is expected to take the details to his party’s general council meeting on Feb 3 to get them ratified.
