DMK, Congress join hands for Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

Congress today entered to manage the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly forms together.

Chennai: In a possible attempt to revive the alliance with DMK that was snapped couple of years back, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will call on DMK president M.Karunanidhi on Saturday.

Azad called the DMK as the most “dependable partner”.

When reporters asked him how many seats the Congress would get, Mr Azad said, “Once we are going together, the seats more, less, this side or that side does not matter (sic)”.

Mature Congress chief Ghulam Nabi Azad achieved with DMK leader M Karunanidhi at his home and introduced the tie up using the local celebration which he referred to as “probably the most reliable companion”. Azad was accompanied by state Congress president EVKS Elangovan and the party’s Tamil Nadu in-charge Mukul Wasnik. “They have also accepted that a government led by the DMK should be formed”.

“On how the DMK is getting back with the Congress despite the Sri Lankan-Tamil’s issue, Azad said that there were “compulsions and pressures” in politics”.

“The Congress will be a part of the DMK alliance to face the Assembly elections. The Congress also knows it is at its weakest in Tamil Nadu and can not be unreasonable as in 2011”, said a senior DMK MLA. In the meeting the issue of seat-sharing will be discussed later. The Congress’s demand for 63 seats, seen as unreasonable, had hobbled the alliance that left the DMK with just 119 seats to contest from the total 234.

In the 2014 Parliamentary polls, the Congress had faced the voters alone and was routed in all 39 seats, though its candidate in Kanyakumari came second pushing the AIADMK and DMK candidates to the third and fourth places respectively.

Congress has been out of power in the key southern state for almost five decades and has generally been aligning with either of the Dravidian parties – DMK or AIADMK.