Congress, DMK to seal Lok Sabha poll pact

Chennai: The DMK and the Congress on Wednesday said they have finalized an agreement to jointly contest the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

DMK MP Kanimozhi and Tamil Nadu PCC President K.S. Alagiri, who met Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday in Delhi separately and returned here on Wednesday, said the details of the agreement would be announced at the DMK headquarters here in the evening.

Kanimozhi said that senior Congress leaders Mukul Wasnik and K.C. Venugopal would meet DMK President M.K. Stalin on Wednesday after which the details would be made public.

It is understood that the Congress would contest nine of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat.

Speaking to reporters here, Alagiri said the AIADMK-PMK alliance announced on Tuesday was an opportunistic one.

The DMK alliance was also expected to include the two Communist parties, VCK and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The other parties will talk to the DMK after it formally seals the pact with the Congress.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress drew blank contesting alone in Tamil Nadu. The DMK and its allies also failed to win any seat in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

A total of 37 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu were won by the AIADMK while the PMK and BJP won one seat each.

[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]