Cong cadres sulking over loss of Pondy seat to PMK

PONDICHERRY, Feb 2 (UNI) The Congress camp in this union territory is in low spirits in the wake of the finalisation of the seat-sharing agreement between the party and the DMK, heading the Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu, sans Pondicherry, the Congress bastion which had been allotted to the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), today.

Disappointment was writ large on the faces of the Congress cadres here as their faint hope of getting back the Pondicherry seat from the PMK was dashed after DMK president M Karunanidhi announced the remaining three seats to be contested by the Congress in addition to the seven constituencies already announced.

Even when the DMK chief announced the seven seats for the Congress and kept the remaining three in abeyance on January 31, the Congress workers here were nurturing hope that some compromise might be worked out with the PMK and the 'winning seat' allocated to them.

But with the completion of the seat-sharing process, the cadres were dissatisfied with the party high command for succumbing to pressure.

The party workers feel that it was not fair to give away the seat, held by the Congress and which it had won nine times out of the 12 Lok Sabha elections, to the PMK which had no representation in the territorial assembly.

Contesting ten seats in alliance with the AIADMK, the PMK drew a blank in the last assembly elections.

On AICC general secretary Kamal Nath's statement that talks would continue to get back the Pondicherry seat for the Congress, a party functionary, on condition of anonymity, said it was only an eye wash and was now too late.

In the AIADMK-BJP front, a BJP candidate might be fielded and Pondicherry might witness a straight fight between the NDA and the DPA.

The possibility of P Kannan, who quit the Congress on January 26 presumably dissatisfied with the allotment of Pondicherry seat to the PMK, jumping into the election arena is not ruled out.

Political observers here feel that Kannan is likely to contest as an independent and if he could get the support of some 'dejected' Congress loyals, he could give a tough fight to the DPA and the NDA.