Puducherry: Miffed over seat-sharing talks, Congress leader raises DMK flag during party meeting

Miffed over seat-sharing talks with the DMK, Congress leader MP Venkatesan on Sunday raised the DMK flag during a meeting of the Congress's Election Committee in Puducherry today.

The waving of the flag promoted a ruckus at the Congress office. Members in the meeting entered into verbal arguments and started getting physical by pulling and pushing one another.

"I raised several times to party leaders to remain firm in seat-sharing talks with DMK. In spite of that, DMK has had a major share of seats which they declared yesterday. Why had we given up? It is in this background that I raised the DMK flag. Why should we not lead the alliance when we led the government all these years?'' he said.

"We thought the party would contest in all the seats. People accept us although we run a coalition government,'' Venkatesan added.

Additional security forces were deployed outside the Congress office in Puducherry after ruckus took place during the Congress's Election Committee meeting on Sunday.

Polling for 30 assembly seats in Puducherry will be held on April 6.

The Congress has entered into an alliance with the DMK, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK). According to their seat-sharing agreement, Congress will contest from 15 seats and the DMK from 13 in 30-member Puducherry Assembly. The CPI and the VCK will field their candidates on one seat each.

As many as 10,02,589 electors will choose the candidates for the 15th legislative Assembly of Puducherry.The Congress-led government in the Union Territory fell before completing its five-year term under the Chief Minister V Narayansamy. Narayanasamy had resigned on February 22 ahead of a floor test in the 33-member House (including three nominated) following the resignations of five Congress and one Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) legislators.

( With inputs from ANI )