Congress seeks 45 seats from DMK in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi: The Congress has demanded 45 seats from the ruling DMK for the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the party sources told NewsDrum.

As part of the alliance, the Congress had fought 25 out of the total 234 seats in the 2021 assembly elections. It managed to bag 18 of those 25 seats.

The party had to settle for 25 seats in 2021 as compared to 2016 when it contested 41 seats and bagged just 8.

The Congress' fresh demand was put forth by party general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal during his meeting with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday evening.

This time, the Congress sources claim that the party’s demand for 45 seats was based on the review of the 2021 results.

In the last assembly elections, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) contested 173 seats, won 133 and lost 40 – mostly to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The sources said the party's assessment is that it will win at least 20 of the seats lost by the DMK if allotted to it.

They cited stronger local presence and better consolidation in direct contests.

The sources further claimed that the Congress party's demand for 45 seats was aimed at improving winnability, strengthening the alliance, and ensuring a more balanced seat-sharing formula ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.

Some media reports suggested that Venugopal, during his interaction with Stalin, sought a Rajya Sabha berth for party leader Pawan Khera and current AICC in-charge of Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan from Tamil Nadu. 

However, there was no official word about it.