The DMK and Congress on March 7 finally worked out a seat sharing arrangement in poll-bound Tamil Nadu.
The DMK, the main opposition party in the state, finally conceded to leave 25 seats for the Congress, which is the lowest ever for the national party. The latter has been demanding 41 seats, which it contested in alliance with the same DMK in 2016. A sort of deadlock took place in talks a couple of days back. The Congress then climbed down to 30 and subsequently to 27 seats while the DMK did not show any sign of giving more than 22 seats.
However, the DMK agreed to leave 25 seats. It was a bit reluctant over leaving more seats for the Congress because of the performance in 2016, when the latter could not do much better and the DMK-led alliance failed to win the election. Out of 41 seats it contested, the Congress could win only eight last time. Thus, the AIADMK made it two in a row.
In this regard the example of Bihar too was cited as the Congress was to much extent responsible for the defeat of Grand Alliance. While it fielded 70 candidates it could win only 19. In contrast the Rashtriya Janata Dal won 75 seats when it contested on 144 constituencies.
In Tamil Nadu, however, the Congress is this time hoping to do better on the basis of the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which the DMK-Left-Congress alliance virtually swept the state winning 38 out of 39 seats.
