DMK yet to begin seat talks, allies worried

If sources in alliance parties are to be believed, the DMK district secretaries, a good number of who are Ministers, have yet to even open negotiation with their alliance counterparts, lending credence of their suspicion that the Dravidian party might delay it till the eleventh hour and convince them to take a low number of seats, as did they during the rural local body polls.

The DMK district bosses have found a convenient excuse in the recent floods for delaying the seat-sharing talks. “Indeed, the floods have kept them engaged during the last fortnight. The Chief Minister and even many Ministers were touring the state post-floods.

But, many DMK district secretaries have gone about their election business as usual. It did not stop the DMK district secretaries from issuing and collecting applications from their party workers. We have reached out to the district secretaries through their functionaries. In some districts, they have responded favorably.

In many places, they are yet to respond,” said a senior functionary of a national party on condition of anonymity. The allies suspect that they would have little time to even negotiate if the ruling party stretches the negotiation till the eleventh hour.

Strangely, a few allies have developed doubts about the conduct of the urban local body polls before the January deadline set by the Supreme Court. An alliance leader of DMK disclosed that there were speculations that the ruling DMK could seek additional time for conducting the urban civic polls, citing the recent floods. However, the probability of such a delay remains uncertain at this juncture.