LS Polls: Congress, DMK seal seat-sharing deal in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry

New Delhi [India], March 9 : With Lok Sabha election schedule likely to be announced soon, the the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, has sealed a seat sharing pact with the Congress (both allies of the INDIA bloc) which will contest on nine seats, setting aside 21 seats for the ruling DMK.
DMK has so far finalised seat-sharing deals with allies CPI (M), CPI, IUML and KMDK, besides MDMK and VCK.
MDMK, IUML and KMDK (DMK Symbol) each to get one seat while VCK, CPM, CPI get two seats each in the Lok Sabha pollsThe Congress will contest the lone seat in Puducherry.
"The Congress will contest elections for nine seats in Tamil Nadu and one seat in Puducherry. On the remaining seats, we will support the candidates of the DMK and alliance parties. We will win all seats in Tamil Nadu," Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said while speaking to the media.
"The Congress and the DMK will not get separated," he emphasised.
This comes after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief MK Stalin held a meeting with Congress MPs KC Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik and former Congress MP Ajoy Kumar at the DMK office in Chennai, earlier today.
Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the DMK-led alliance secured a landslide victory by bagging 38 out of 39 seats. The Congress, which was also a part of the alliance, bagged 8 seats out of the nine contested.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, won only one seat.
Makkal Needhi Maiam president and actor Kamal Hassan announced to support DMK in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Puducherry constituency is currently represented by Congress's V. Vaithilingam, who secured a massive victory against his rivals in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, INDIA partners Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAp) have already finalised the seat-sharing pact for Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Goa.
The Lok Sabha polls are slated to be held in April-May this year.