Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress, DMK to hold seat-sharing talks amid INDIA bloc tumult

The Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, are set to start seat-sharing discussions for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu on Sunday. These talks will take place at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in Chennai. Senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik is scheduled to have a meeting with State leaders, which will be followed by a meeting with the DMK Seat Sharing Committee.

Besides Wasnik, the Congress team will include Salman Khurshid, Ajoy Kumar, Tamil Nadu Congress chief KS Alagiri and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader K Selva Perunthagai. The DMK panel will consist of Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu, former Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy, K N Nehru, I Periyasamy, and M R K Panneerselvam, A Raja and Tiruchi Siva.

The Congress expects that the DMK will adhere to the 2019 seat-sharing formula, under which they received nine seats in Tamil Nadu and one seat in Puducherry. The Congress-DMK alliance has been in place since 2004, with a break between March 2013 and February 2016.

Ahead of the seat-sharing talks in Chennai, DMK minister Raja Kannappan claimed that the grand old Congress was running the party only to get seats for its own in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. He further added that the DMK will take care of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu. 

"As far as the INDIA bloc is concerned, our leader spoke about it even a day back. Congress is a big and old party. I'm not denying that. But they have lost their strength," Kannappan was quoted as saying by India Today. 

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party (SP), led by Akhilesh Yadav, has offered 11 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress stated that constructive seat-sharing discussions are ongoing between senior party leader Ashok Gehlot and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Uttar Pradesh sends 80 members to Lok Sabha with elections due in April-May. Currently, the Samajwadi Party has three MPs and the Bahujan Samaj Party has 10 MPs from the state. Sonia Gandhi is the only Congress MP, representing the Rae Bareli constituency.

The Apna Dal (Sonelal) has two MPs, while the BJP has 64 MPs from the state. The SP and the RLD announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls on January 19, with the latter agreeing to leave seven seats in western Uttar Pradesh for the former's nominees.

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