Seat talks: Deal eludes ruling camp in State, Stalin steps in
CHENNAI: With consensus eluding the ruling front in the State – involving DMK and allies Congress, VCK and MDMK – on sharing of seats for the Lok Sabha elections, DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Thursday, got into a huddle with his party seniors to find a breakthrough.
Stalin met with the panel headed by DMK treasurer TR Baalu, constituted to hold seat-sharing talks, at Anna Arivalayam on Thursday noon. Though the team kept party president Stalin posted about the status of negotiation with the allies on a real-time basis, this is the second time in a week that he has personally discussed the issues in the negotiation with the seat-sharing team.
If sources in the DMK are to be believed, conflict among the allies over the choice of constituencies was high on the agenda of Thursday’s discussion.
For instance, convincing Congress to give up Tiruchy seat for MDMK and persuading CPM to ‘sacrifice’ Coimbatore in the event of actor Kamal Haasan insisting on contesting an LS ticket instead of accepting a Rajya Sabha nomination, and forcing Congress into giving up sitting seats like Krishnagiri, Tiruvallur, Karur and Sivagangai were among the issues discussed by CM Stalin.
Stalin was also understood to have briefly elicited the views of the experienced negotiation team on VCK demanding a third seat (general) for its newly appointed resourceful deputy general secretary Aadhav Arjun, also close to the DMK. However, the team and the CM were in agreement not to apportion the third seat, something that has been categorically communicated to the VCK leadership.
The DMK leadership is believed to have changed its mind on the symbol issue with the MDMK, which is adamant that it would contest only on its ‘own’ symbol this election.
Meanwhile, the DMK has announced interviews for those applying for party tickets. DMK general secretary Duraimurugan said Stalin would elicit the views of applicants from 9 am on March 10.