LS polls: Congress likely to announce alliance, seat-sharing agreement with DMK soon

The Congress is expected to announce its alliance and seat-sharing agreement with the DMK for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and by-election soon as the talks with DMK chief MK Stalin's has been underway since past few weeks, according to sources.

This came after a day the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced that it will fight the forthcoming General elections with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

AICC general secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu state Mukul Wasnik will be meeting Stalin at DMK headquarters in Chennai today on DMK-Congress alliance.

DMK Women Wing leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Kanimozhi and senior DMK leaders held talks with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders in Delhi on a seat-sharing arrangement.

As per sources, the Congress is expected to get nine seats out of 39 in Tamil Nadu and one from Puducherry. The DMK is likely to contest in more than 20 seats. Other seats will go to alliance parties like VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPM and MMK.

The AIADMK won 37 seats in Tamil Nadu in 2014 Lok Sabha while the BJP-led alliance won only two seats.

Announcing its alliance with the AIADMK on February 19, BJP said that it will contest on five out of the 39 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and one seat in Puducherry.

The PMK, which has a strong voter base in northern Tamil Nadu, especially among the OBC Vanniyar community, will contest on six Lok Sabha seats and will be given one Rajya Sabha seat.

In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disqualified and two dead).