Representative image. File | Photo credit: G. Moorthy
The CPI(M) has refused to budge on its demand for six assembly seats, although the ruling DMK is prepared to offer only five. There is also uncertainty about the party’s continuation in the alliance if it is not allocated six seats.
Even after three rounds of talks, the two sides could not come to an agreement as the state committee of the CPI(M) took a firm stand against settling for five seats. “We have conveyed the decision of the State Committee to the DMK leadership,” CPI(M) State Secretary P. Shanmugam said on Thursday.
He added that DMK had already indicated in the last elections that it would offer more seats in the next elections. “But that didn’t happen. We are answerable to the State Committee, not to individuals in the party. DMK plans to fight for around 170 seats, it might reconsider its allocation,” he said.
Asked if the party would leave the alliance, Mr Shanmugam said: “So far there is no change in the party’s political stance on supporting the DMK alliance to defeat the BJP and its allies.”
DMK’s argument is that it cannot split with more seats as it has taken other parties in the alliance and has already given three more seats to the Congress. It allotted only five seats to the CPI, which was contesting six seats in the 2021 parliamentary elections.
The DMK wants to finalize its pact with the CPI(M) before resuming talks with the VCK and DMDK. VCK, which has been allotted six seats in 2021, is likely to get a few more, while DMDK has already won a Rajya Sabha seat. The party is now demanding a double-digit number of seats in the assembly, but the DMK has asked its leader Premallath Vijayakant to lower the demand.
The DMK leadership does not want to create a situation where it is reduced to a minority in the assembly, as happened in the 2006 elections.
At the time, it depended on the support of the Congress and the PMK, and was often referred to by the late AIADMK leader and former chief minister Jayalalithaa as a “DMK minority government”.
Published – 19 March 2026 18:19 IST
