With Tamil Nadu’s assembly elections now barely five weeks away, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance is rapidly finalising its coalition arithmetic. In a significant development on Wednesday, March 18, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formalised its seat-sharing agreement with its long-standing ally, the Communist Party of India, allotting the left party five of the 234 assembly constituencies it will contest.
The agreement was signed at the DMK’s party headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in the presence of Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin and Tamil Nadu CPI Secretary M. Veerapandian. The conclusion of the pact which came after multiple rounds of talks marks a slight reduction from the CPI’s 2021 tally, when the party had contested six seats as part of the same alliance. Despite the trim, CPI leaders struck a pragmatic note, framing the reduction as a strategic compromise in the larger interest of alliance unity, with their primary stated objective being to defeat the BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu.
The CPI deal adds to an emerging picture of the SPA’s pre-election coalition. The Indian National Congress has already secured 28 seats within the alliance, and the DMK has also allocated a Rajya Sabha berth to the Congress as part of the broader arrangement. The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), led by Vaiko, has been allotted four seats.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is continuing its own negotiations with the DMK. The party has reportedly staked a claim to the Singanallur constituency in Coimbatore as part of its seat-sharing discussions, though no agreement has been finalised as of the time of publication.
The seat-sharing negotiations are taking place under the Model Code of Conduct, which came into immediate effect on March 15 after the Election Commission of India formally announced that Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase on April 23. The counting of votes is scheduled for May 4, and the current assembly’s tenure expires on May 10.
The central contest in these elections is expected to be between the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance and the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance, which includes the BJP and the Pattali Makkal Katchi. Actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, which has announced it will contest all 234 seats independently, adds a significant third dimension to the election one that could reshape the electoral calculus in ways that are difficult to predict with confidence.
At the 2021 election, the DMK’s alliance swept to power with 159 seats combined, against the AIADMK alliance’s 75. The DMK itself won 133 seats, and is aiming for an equally decisive mandate in 2026. With alliance talks reaching their final stages on the ruling side, the battle lines for Tamil Nadu’s most consequential election in years are now being drawn.
-Samuthiran
