This year, assembly elections are to be held in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (Pondicherry), Assam. Bharatiya Janata Party is strong in most of the states of North India but the party is still struggling in the states of South India. At the same time, the country’s main opposition party Congress is stronger than BJP in South India. However, Congress is also in alliance in many states of South India.
In Tamil Nadu, Congress is in alliance with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) but the party is not a government ally. Congress is in Tamil Nadu with the support of DMK and currently the Congress high command is discussing an alliance with DMK. A faction in Congress wants to form a power alliance with DMK but DMK is not ready to make Congress an ally in the government. In 2021, DMK gave only 25 seats to Congress.
Like Tamil Nadu, in Puducherry too, DMK now wants to play the role of elder brother. DMK had contested the elections in 2021 along with Congress but at that time DMK had contested less seats than Congress.
In 2021, Congress, DMK, VCK and CPI contested the elections together in Puducherry. Congress had fielded its candidates on 15 seats, DMK on 13 seats, VCK and CPI on one seat each.
In the 2016 assembly elections, Congress had fielded its candidates on 21 seats and DMK had fielded its candidates on 9 seats. In 2016, the Congress party alone had won 15 seats and formed the government but before the 2021 elections, four Congress MLAs left the party and the Congress government fell.
If we look at the record of the last two elections, DMK is continuously increasing its support base and Congress is continuously weakening in Puducherry also. In 2016, Congress had won 15 seats but in 2021, Congress was reduced to 2 seats. Whereas in 2021, DMK won more seats than Congress despite fighting on fewer seats than Congress.
Now DMK party wants to field its candidates on more seats than the Congress party in the 2026 assembly elections. DMK leaders said that their party’s performance in the last elections was much better than the Congress party, hence their party should be given a chance to contest more seats than the Congress. Many DMK leaders made this demand publicly in a party program. However, during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress retained the only Lok Sabha seat and also won it.
Congress is in a mood to contest elections with DMK in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry but the party is demanding more seats from DMK. In Puducherry, Congress is trying to keep DMK in the role of younger brother but in Tamil Nadu too it is demanding more seats from DMK. The Congress leadership has also held several meetings on this. After receiving instructions from the high command, Puducherry Congress has also started a yatra.
There are a total of 234 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. In 2021, Congress got only 25 seats, out of which Congress won 18 seats. Now Congress is demanding 35–40 seats. DMK is not in favor of giving more seats to Congress.
