New Delhi: After announcing its first list of 39 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Saturday sealed a seat-sharing deal with the DMK in Tamil Nadu. As part of the broad consensus reached between the two parties, the Congress will contest nine of the 39 seats in the state while supporting the DMK and its allies in the rest.
As part of the deal reached between the two parties, the Congress will also contest one seat in Puducherry.
The seat-sharing arrangement was finalised between DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai in Chennai, in the presence of AICC leaders KC Venugopal and Ajoy Kumar.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Venugopal said, “Congress will contest elections on 9 seats in Tamil Nadu and one seat in Puducherry. On the remaining seats, we will support the candidates of DMK and alliance parties. We will win all 40 seats of Tamil Nadu.”
The senior Congress leader also exuded confidence that the I.N.D.I.A bloc will secure victory in the upcoming general elections.
“They (NDA) can make the perception that they are winning but I.N.D.I.A bloc will be ruling the country after this election,” Venugopal said.
It is to be noted that in the previous Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had contested nine out of the total 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu, in addition to the lone seat in Puducherry. The party secured victory in eight seats across Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the DMK had contested 20 seats and emerged victorious in all of them during that election.
In the Tamil Nadu assembly polls in 2021, the DMK had contested 188 out of 234 seats and emerged victorious in 133. The Congress was given 25 seats out of which it bagged 18.