Seat sharing deal between Congress and DMK signed by the two parties after senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad calls on Karunanidhi

The DMK and the Congress reached a seat sharing agreement in which the Congress gets 41 seats to contest.

Both sides were flexible, the Congress climbed down a little and the DMK patriarch showed willingness to accommodate the Congress by giving it more seats when senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad called on him at his Gopalapuram residence on Monday morning.

An announcement of the deal was made by Azad and MK Stalin after the meeting.

“Under the leadership of Karunanidhi ji, we had two meetings, we met earlier on two occasions. Here is the young leadership. We have signed a deal of 41 seats to the Congress. I am sure, that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi at national level, and Karunanidhi at state level, we would be able to form the government. In the last two decades, the AIADMK was never in power for consecutive terms. This time it is the turn of the DMK to lead the government under Karunanidhi’s leadership.

Stalin said, “today we decided how many seats Congress will fight. The Congress will contest in 41 seats. We have signed an agreement for this. The alliance will win as people are vexed and want a change.” The constituencies however will be finalised after more talks between the leaders of the two parties.

The seat sharing agreement has come about after two rounds of previous meetings ended in a stalemate as the Congress was demanding 63 seats it contested in 2011 polls. But the DMK was not willing to give more than 30.

Karunnaidhi showed flexibility and raised this number to 41, showing his willingness to accommodate the Congress.