The Congress on Friday denied reports of rift with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and said the two sides with begin seat-sharing talks for the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu soon. The party also said that it will not exert any pressure on the DMK, exuding confidence that Congress will be given the desired number of seats.
"We are not exerting pressure on our ally. We will ask and get what we want and the DMK will give (us)," Tamil Nadu Congress president K Selvaperunthagai told reporters in Tiruvallur. "We are holding talks to commence negotiations on seat-sharing; seat-sharing parleys will begin in about a week."
Earlier in the day, DMK deputy general secretary Kanimozhi also said that the two parties have initiated the informal talks, which have been 'smooth'. Her remark came after she met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Delhi last week. Kanimozhi, a Lok Sabha MP from Thoothukkudi constituency, further stated that an announcement on seat-sharing will likely be made by Chief Minister MK Stalin after talks conclude.
"Our party president will make an announcement once the discussions conclude," she said.
The clarification from the Congress and the DMK leaders come amid reports of rift between them after the former demanded more seats. Reports also claimed that the Congress is looking for an alliance with actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), but grand old party's TS Singh Deo later clarified that the INDIA bloc is united.
"We are going to be stick together... whatever differences are there, those will be resolved like the issues within the family. We will work it out," the former Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister, who is also party's chairperson of the screening committee for Tamil Nadu, said
In previous assembly elections held in 2021, the Congress was allotted 25 seats of the state's 234 assembly constituencies. Of these, the party won 18 seats. The DMK, on the other hand, had contested on 188 seats and bagged 133 of them. Meanwhile, the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu will likely be held in mid of this year, along with those in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
