The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC’s), led by former Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, has “temporarily” declined the offer of AIADMK to ally with it after it was made clear that it would have to use “two-leaves” as its symbol in the Assembly elections.

According to sources, Vasan was called for seat sharing talks by the AIADMK Chief Jayalalithaa on Thursday afternoon. It was during these talks that Vasan was told that they would be offered 15 seats provided they use the “two-leaves” symbol of the AIADMK.

Vasan, who revived the TMC a little more than a year ago, was planning to strengthen it by allying with AIADMK. The party’s symbol is “coconut farm”.

After the symbol debacle, Vasan said: “we will decide the future course of action in the next two days “.

The AIADMK, contesting in 234 constituencies with “two leaves” had already allocated seven seats to its small allies, which had agreed to contest using the ruling party symbol.

According to TMC sources the party cadre was interested in allying with the AIADMK. The TMC has been given a day more to give its decision.

A TMC leader said that people were familiar with the cycle symbol of TMC. They would take time to get familiar with the new coconut farm symbol of the party. “As there is very less time to publicise our new “coconut farm” symbol, it is better to contest in AIADMK’s “two leaves” symbol for the time being”.

BJP has also shown interest in having TMC as an ally and is expected to offer 40 seats. On the other hand, Vijayakanth’s DMDK-PWF is also said to have invited Vasan for talks.