DMK finalises seat sharing

The DMK today completed the seat sharing exercise for the forthcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu without fuss or drama, allocating 105 seats to its allies in the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), leaving 129 seats for itself.

The party signed a poll accord with its ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) under which the PMK was allotted 31 seats.

The party has already allocated 48 seats to the Congress, 13 to the CPI (M), 10 to the CPI and three to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). The DMK will contest for only 129 seats, the second lowest since 1967. In 1980, the party had contested for 117 seats, leaving 117 to the Congress.

After signing the agreement, PMK founder S Ramadoss told reporters that he was happy but not satisfied. Poll accords were based on "the aim and numbers", he said adding that the aim of the party was to defeat the "undemocratic, politically ill-cultured and autocratic ADMK government".

On the numbers he said the party had made "sacrifices" but was happy with it. He said the DMK was neither "generous as reported by media nor stingy" in seat allocation.

The PMK's statement clearly reflects the smoothness with which the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) has been working. This is because the party has already suffered one jolt. Just after the last assembly session, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, tried to first lure individual MLAs from the constituents of the DPA and then whole parties.

V Gopalaswamy of the MDMK, who saw a limited personal role for himself in the DPA in view of leader M Karunanidhi projecting his son, Stalin, as his successor, went against the wishes of the party and joined the ADMK. In this move, Gopalaswamy's only supporter was his Propaganda Secretary Nanjal Sampath, who campaigned all over Tamil Nadu explaining to party cadres how the MDMK was like the O negative blood group - which can be supplied to anyone but cannot receive any other except itself.

The next candidate on Jayalalithaa's parties to split was the PMK. Three MLAs were weaned away from the PMK and admitted into the ADMK before the last assembly session. However, all three were dalits, elected from reserved constituencies in PMK strongholds. On ground, the Vanniyar caste (the dominant base of the PMK) is strongly opposed to dalits, these were largely ceremonial dalits in the PMK and the party shed no tears at their departure.

The ADMK also tried to split the Congress via senior leader Tindivanam Ramamurthy who was encouraged to make statements against the DPA and was finally expelled from the Congress. The Congress appointed PMK leader Anbumani Ramdoss's father-in-law, K Krishnaswamy as Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Chief.

Observers said senior leaders in the Tamil Nadu Congress - P Chidambaram, EVKS Elangovan and, GK Vasan - were present at the airport to welcome Krishnaswamy when he returned to Chennai after his appointment. The appointment made it much easier for the DMK to deal with both the PMK and the Congress in seat allocation as caste claims by the Vanniyars were satisfied.

With one significant defection, the ADMK is now trying to consolidate its position. The DMK, meanwhile, has made it clear that there will be no deputy chief minister and that Karunanidhi will be CM, leaving no door open on that count. The DPA knows that the alliance is its strength.