Chennai: DMK has allotted four seats to MDMK for the upcoming assembly elections, two less than the last election. While MDMK will contest three seats on DMK’s ‘rising sun’ symbol, the party would field a candidate on its own symbol in one seat.The decision to contest one seat on an independent symbol to be allotted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) was taken at a meeting of a high-level committee held at the party headquarters in Chennai on Wednesday. The decision was taken in the presence of general secretary Vaiko and principal secretary Durai Vaiko. Hours after the meeting, Vaiko signed the seat-sharing agreement with chief minister M K Stalin at the DMK headquarters.In 2021, MDMK contested all the six seats it was allotted on the ‘rising sun’ symbol and won four. But this time, there was a demand from party seniors to contest in its own symbol to avoid action from the ECI. “Last year, the ECI sent notice to several parties that did not contest on their own symbol, asking why their registration should not be cancelled. To avoid this, we decided to contest a single seat on our own symbol,” an MDMK functionary said. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election too, DMK wanted MDMK to contest in ‘rising sun’ symbol, but Durai Vaiko insisted on contesting on an independent symbol.MDMK had initially sought more seats than its 2021 allocation. But the party scaled down its demand to five and settled for four. “Our objective is to defeat BJP and its allies in this election, not to create trouble in the alliance,” a senior leader said. MDMK had also wanted a Rajya Sabha seat, but gave up on that demand as well.
