Congress-DMK Seal Deal In Tamil Nadu, Guest Appearance By Kamal Haasan

With Lok Sabha election dates likely to be announced soon, the DMK - the ruling party in Tamil Nadu - has finalised a seat-sharing deal with the Congress and Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), sources have said.

Sources say Congress is likely to get ten seats.

An official announcement, sources say, will be made after a meeting between the Congress and the DMK this evening. "Our team will meet the Chief Minister at 6 pm. We are getting a total of ten seats," a senior Congress leader told NDTV.

Kamal Haasan's party, meanwhile, has been allotted one seat for the 2025 Rajya Sabha polls. 

Mr Haasan said he has joined the DMK-led alliance for the country's welfare. " I will not contest. I have joined the DMK-led alliance for the sake of the country, and not for any post," Mr Haasan said.

"I extend my full support to the alliance," he said after meeting the Chief Minister at Anna Arivalayam - the DMK headquarters in Chennai.

MNM will campaign for the alliance in the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry segment, sources said.

Mr Stalin's party has allotted two seats each to the Communist Party of India and CPIM, as well as one each to the Indian Union Muslim League and the Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi.

The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi has also been allotted two seats.

DMK had been working on an accord with the Congress, an INDIA bloc ally with whom it scored dominant wins in the 2019 general and 2021 state elections. Seen as one of the key architects of the INDIA alliance, M K Stalin's DMK is keen to repeat the 2019 sweep.