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Coimbatore
Congress Committee to decide on identifying , sharing seats
March 21, 2016
An eight-member committee, led by TN Congress Committee Chief E.V.K.S. Elangovan, was constituted in Chennai on Monday to decide on seat sharing and places it wanted to contest from.
All India Congress Committee General Secretary Mukul Wasnik said the committee would undertake the exercise of identifying seats for the Congress party and then to hold negotiations.
The committee would have as members CLP leader K. Gopinath, K.V. Thankabalu, M. Krishnasamy, D. Yasoda, Thirunavukkarasar, Dhanishkodi Athitan and A.P.C.V. Shanmugam.
According to a senior Congress leader, seat sharing would be decided after the constituencies were identified that would be favourable to the DMK. It is expected that TNCC would demand more than 60 seats with DMK as its major ally for the May 16 Assembly polls.
The Congress, which entered into poll alliance last month, left the seat sharing decision with DMK since the DMDK was also expected to join as an ally. However, when actor-politician Vijayakanth sort of abandoned DMK, Congress, which was trying to settle for 20 seats, was expected to bargain for more.
In the 2011 Assembly polls, DMK fought for 63 seats in the alliance, while in 2006 it was for 48 seats.
After an alliance with Congress in 2004, DMK snapped its ties with the UPA in 2013 for not effectively handling the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Congress and DMK contested separately and the former drew a blank in all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. The Congress in the State weakened after one of its senior leader’s and former Union Minister G.K. Vasan quit the party to revive his Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC).
