DMK names Congress's nine seats for LS polls, completes seat-allocation exercise among allies

Chennai: Sivaganga, Cuddalore, Krishnagiri and Kanniyakumari are among the nine Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu given to the Congress by the ruling DMK to contest in the upcoming general election.

DMK President M K Stalin and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) President K Selvaperunthagai signed an agreement at the ruling party’s headquarters Anna Arivalayam here on Monday, specifically naming the constituencies allotted.

Selvaperunthagai told reporters that his party would announce the candidates in two-to-three days. The DMK has also allotted the lone LS segment in Puducherry also to the Congress.

The list of constituencies was announced by the DMK days after it finalised the numbers of its seat-sharing arrangement with its allies.

The DMK allotted Tiruchirappalli LS segment to Vaiko-led MDMK, a constituency currently represented by the Congress party’s Su Thirunavukkarasar. The MDMK has named Principal Party Secretary and Vaiko’s son Durai Vaiko as its candidate for Tiruchirappalli.

Of the nine seats allotted to Congress, Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai and Tirunelveli are currently held by the DMK in the 17th Lok Sabha and the remaining seats were won by the grand old party in 2019 as an ally of the Dravidian party.

In the 2019 LS polls, barring the Theni LS seat which was won by the AIADMK, the Congress won the other eight constituencies it contested.

The DMK has now completed the exercise of seat allocation, which began over a month ago.

Madurai and Dindigul have been allotted to CPI(M), Nagapattinam and Tiruppur to CPI and the reserved seats of Chidambaram and Villupuram to VCK. The IUML will contest from Ramanathapuram and the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katch (KMDK) is set to fight from Namakkal on the Rising Sun symbol.

The DMK will be contesting in 21 Lok Sabha seats (22 seats when Namakkal is included, as KMDK will contest on the DMK symbol) and its allies in the remaining 18 LS segments in Tamil Nadu.