Hopeful that DMK will conclude seat-sharing talks at the earliest: Girish Chodankar

Girish Chodankar, All India Congress Committee incharge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, on Saturday said the Congress was hopeful that the DMK would conclude the seat-sharing negotiations at the earliest.

Addressing a press conference at Sathyamurthy Bhavan here, Mr. Chodankar said that the Congress was proactive in pursuing an alliance with the DMK and rejected the notion that the party was exploring other alternatives.

“We have been proactive in forming a committee and met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at his office a month ago. We are waiting and hopeful that the DMK will take a decision. We are confident that they will close the issue at the earliest. We have a long-standing relationship with the DMK. Our tradition is that we conclude alliance negotiations for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry together,” he said. When asked if the Congress was pushing for the sharing of power as a precondition for the alliance, Mr. Chodankar asked, “Will any political party say no to power [being a part of government]?”

He said the party had received close to 5,000 applications from aspiring candidates and the conclusion of the seat-sharing negotiations was essential as the party could then concentrate on choosing the candidates and campaigning.

Asked about the decision of the Congress to skip MDMK chief Vaiko’s recent samathuva nadaipayanam, Mr. Chodankar backed TNCC president K. Selvaperunthagai’s decision.

“The TNCC president has taken the right decision of not participating in the function because of the photo [of LTTE chief Prabhakaran],” he said, adding that he would not even want to mention Prabhakaran’s name as the cadre would not like it.

PCC president has taken the right decision of not participating in the function because of the photo (of LTTE Chief Prabhakaran),” he said, adding that he would not even want to mention Prabhakaran’s name as the cadres would not like it.