Beginning preliminary seat-sharing talks with the DMK on Thursday for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the Congress is learnt to have pitched for over 50 seats for the upcoming Assembly election. However, a Congress leader said the talks are underway and everything will be sorted out soon.
At the discussion, the DMK is led by General Secretary Duraimurugan, Treasurer T.R. Baalu and MP Kanimozhi, while the Congress has its state in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, and Tamil Nadu President K.S. Alagiri.
Notably, Congress is demanding around 50 of the state's 294 seats but the DMK wants to give only 24, cited its poor performance in the last Assembly election when it contested 41 seats and won only eight.
Congress leaders privy to talks said the party is asking for a higher number of seats as it does not want to be on the fringes but the DMK has cited its "Bihar performance", where the party's inability to win enough seats prevented the RJD-led 'mahagatbandhan' from reaching a majority.
Though Dinesh Gundu Rao could did not react to calls, senior leader and party Treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal said: "We are presently in touch with all our allies and all our associations and electoral alliances will be worked out. We will be in a position to share something only when the final picture is clear."
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