BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: After reaching a consensus yesterday on seat sharing, the Congress party and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) have signed an agreement in Chennai to formalize their alliance for the April 13 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
The Congress party last night announced in New Delhi that it would contest 63 of the 234 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. The two parties are yet to decide which constituencies will be assigned to the the Congress party.
The Congress has also made it clear that if the alliance is successful, it would like a share in power. At present, the DMK government is provided external support by the Congress party in the state.
The fight for seat sharing started and worsened over the weekend with the DMK announcing that it would pull out of the Union government if the Congress party insisted on any more than 60 seats. The DMK has six ministers and 18 MPs, making it a crucial part of the central government.
However, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi refused to surrender to the DMK’s blackmail and said that it was 63 seats or nothing at all. The DMK said that its ministers would resign on March 7 but they did not follow through on their threat.
A series of meetings followed with Pranab Mukherjee mediating on behalf of the Congress party with Dayanidhi Maran and MK Alagiri of the DMK.
Last evening, DMK leaders met Sonia Gandhi at her residence in Delhi, officially ending the separation.
