Congress to let DMK decide on seat sharing for LS elections

If information from the state Congress headquarters were anything to go by, the DMK, be it seat numbers or choice of constituencies, could dictate terms this time. An idea to this effect was given a serious thought to in the recently concluded meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in New Delhi.

Surprisingly, the decision was seconded by former union ministers P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who usually parley with the Dravidian major during elections.

“The CWC decided that it shall get an assurance from the DMK for securing all or most of 39 seats from Tamil Nadu. DMK shall decide the number of seats to be contested by the Congress,” an AICC functionary privy to the CWC meeting said, revealing that the idea was not objected to by many in the CWC meet.

The source also confirmed that the leaders have been advised to go easy on the issue of Prime Ministerial candidate of the Congress alliance so that it would not be a deterrent to cobbling up a grand alliance. The DMK has neither publicly nor privately endorsed the projection of Rahul as PM candidate.

Ironically, the alleged CWC discussion was starkly different from the views repeatedly aired by state Congress chief Su Thirunavukkarasar that there was no second thought on Rahul Gandhi being projected as PM candidate.