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CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Friday entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, allotting 31 seats to the party.
The DMK also assured support to a PMK candidate for a Rajya Sabha nomination later.
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and PMK founder S. Ramadoss signed the agreement at the DMK president's Gopalapuram residence here after two hours of discussion.
“I came a happy man to invite the Chief Minister for my grandson's marriage, and I am returning a happy man,” Dr Ramadoss told reporters, explaining the deal clinched between his party and the DMK.
Mr. Karunanidhi said the inclusion of the PMK was the next logical step after the Congress and DMK reaffirmed their alliance recently in Delhi.
The PMK was allotted 31 seats, the same number of seats allotted in the 2006 Assembly elections in the DMK alliance. The DMK had then contested 132 seats, the Left parties together got 23 seats and the Congress 48.
Though the relationship between the DMK and the PMK was on a rollercoaster ride in the wake of the Chief Minister's reported remarks that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was against including the PMK in the alliance, both sides buried the differences and reached an accord.
Asked whether the party would seek the same constituencies it had contested last time, Dr. Ramadoss said the committee appointed for the purpose would identify the seats. He expressed the hope that the DMK-Congress combine would win the polls in the State.
On whether he had plans to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of completion of seat-sharing, he said former Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had already met the Congress leader.
He declined to answer the question on whether the PMK's bargaining power had come down since the party had to settle for 31 seats, though he wanted 45 seats.
When reporters recalled his comment in 2006 that the DMK was neither generous nor stingy in allotting seats for the PMK and sought his view now, he said, “I leave it to your interpretation.”
