Duraimurugan-led panel to hold seat sharing talks

Party general secretary K Anbazhagan announced the constitution of the committee comprising deputy general secretary I Periasamy, organising secretary RS Bharati and high-level executive committee members KN Nehru, EV Velu and K Ponmudi.

The committee would hold seat sharing talks with allies, said Anbazhagan, who also set up an eight-member committee to prepare the poll manifesto.

Former union ministers TR Baalu, A Raja, party seniors Subbulakshmi Jagadeeshan, deputy general secretary VP Duraisamy, Rajya Sabha MPs Kanimozhi, Tiruchy Siva, TKS Elangovan and old timer professor A Ramasamy have been entrusted the task of preparing the election manifesto for the Parliamentary elections, which, the DMK would likely face in the company of the Congress, the two Left parties, IUML and VCK besides a few smaller parties.

DMK was the first in the state, if not the country, to set the ball rolling for the Parliamentary elections. Leaders of DMK and Congress would meet at the negotiation table to discuss Parliamentary seat sharing after a break of ten years since they last faced a Lok Sabha election together.

If sources in the party are to be believed, the DMK has planned to contest not less than 25 seats this time. DMK insider’s privy to the meeting said the party wants to only allot seats in single digit to the Congress and accommodate the Left parties with one or two, in the worst-case scenario.

Going by the information trickling out of Anna Arivalayam, the DMK might insist VCK to contest in its “Rising Sun” symbol in the lone seat it could be allocated.