Tamil Nadu Polls: DMK Offers Five Seats to VCK, Ally Demands 10

VCK sources expect seat-sharing talks with the DMK to be settled by Tuesday evening.

The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) has been offered five seats as part of the DMK alliance in Tamil Nadu as talks are ongoing for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. According to a source from VCK, the DMK has offered them five seats till now but the party has demanded that their ally allot them 10 seats, like they did in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections 2011.

Speaking to TNM, a source in the VCK said, “We want DMK to give us 10 seats since we contested as part of the DMK alliance in the 2011 elections and got 10 seats. We prefer that we get the same 10 seats. It is natural for the DMK to start the negotiation from five seats,” he said.

In 2019, VCK contested the Parliamentary elections as part of the DMK alliance and won two MP seats with VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and VCK General Secretary Ravikumar taking oaths as Members of Parliament.

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VCK’s Previous Alliance

However, in the 2016 Assembly elections, the VCK established an alliance with the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), Left parties and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) under the banner Makkal Nala Kotani (People’s Welfare Alliance) with anti-corruption as the main issue. The alliance projected DMDK chief Vijayakant as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the alliance. However, the alliance lost all the seats it had contested in and did not get back deposits in many constituencies.

Following this, the Makkal Nala Kotani was dissolved and the DMDK joined the AIADMK alliance while the VCK, MDMK, and the Left parties joined the DMK alliance. In 2016, the VCK contested in 25 seats and lost its deposit in 22 seats. The party received 0.77 percent of the total vote share in the state, as per data with Election Commission of India (ECI).

The DMK is reportedly holding talks with the Left parties on Tuesday morning and with the VCK in the evening. VCK sources also expect the seat-sharing talks to be settled by Tuesday evening.

(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished here with permission.)