In a swift political move to put the brakes on the AIADMK-camp’s momentum, the ruling DMK on Friday signed an electoral pact with the PMK for the Assembly polls by allotting 31 seats to the party and assuring its support for Dr Anbumani Ramadoss’ re-entry into the Rajya Sabha in 2013.
After nearly two hours of negotiations, chief minister M. Karunanidhi and PMK founder, Dr S. Ramadoss, signed the agreement much to the glee of the PMK cadres who have been anxious to retain the old tally of 31 seats, especially after the 2009 Lok Sabha election debacle.
Dr Ramadoss said he had gone to invite the DMK leader for his grandson’s wedding. “It was a happy meeting with a happy end,” he told reporters. The PMK was allotted 31 seats and one in 18 seats in the DMK-Congress combine. “Our bargaining power has neither gone down nor gone up,” he said.
Exuding hope that the DMK alliance would return to power, Dr Ramadoss said constituencies would be identified later. Sources said the DMK leadership tried its best to settle the Vanniyar party at 28 seats but yielded following the pleading of the PMK leader for an “honourable settlement”.
Though the relationship between the two parties was on a roller-coaster ride, they clinched the deal a day after Dr Anbumani met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi.
By following the “first-come-first-served” policy and allotting 31 seats to the PMK, the DMK leadership has underscored a vital point that the resurgent Congress cannot be greedy but realistic. At best, the Congress can hope for 60 seats.
In the 234-seat Assembly, the DMK contested 132 seats in 2006 and wants to shed its image as heading a minority government for the first time in its history, sources said.