Video: Brawl breaks out at Congress office in Puducherry over seat allocation to DMK

An unseemly brawl broke out at the Congress office in Puducherry on Sunday (March 14), after a Congress leader expressed his anger over the party giving away a major share of seats to their alliance partner, DMK, ahead of the Puducherry Assembly elections scheduled to be held on April 6.

The members, who had gathered at the Congress Election Committee meet started to abuse each other, leading to a scuffle physically pushing one another.

Former Puducherry Chief Minister, V Narayanasamy, who was present at the meeting tried to pacify angry members and stop them from fighting with each other. The fight broke out when Congress leader MP Venkatesan waved the DMK flag at the meeting, complaining about seat-sharing talks that had been concluded with the DMK.

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Venkatesan told NDTV that he had asked party leaders to remain firm during their seat-sharing talks with the DMK. Despite his requests, the DMK has handed a major share of the seats, which they had declared yesterday.

“Why had we (Congress) 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?” said Venkatesan, who was angry about his party caving in to pressure by the DMK.

He expected his party to contest in all the seats since the Puducherry people accept them though they had run a coalition government, he added. In this election, Congress has decided to contest 15 seats, giving 13 seats to its a the DMK. While, the CPI and the VCK will field their candidates on one seat each.

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Additional security forces were deployed outside the Congress office in Puducherry after the incident, said media reports.

The Congress, which had been in power before it prematurely fell largely due to internal squabbling within the party, has teamed up with the DMK, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), to contest this Assembly election. The Union Territory has 10,02,589 electors, who are expected to choose candidates for the 15th legislative Assembly of Puducherry on April 6.

The V Narayanasamy-led Congress government had fallen after he resigned on February 22, ahead of a floor test in the 33-member House (including three nominated). Five Congress members and one DMK legislator had suddenly resigned bringing his government down. A Namasivayam, a senior Congress leader considered second in the previous cabinet, was the first to join the BJP in January. Two more Congress legislators too defected to the BJP, prompting Narayanasamy to blame the BJP for toppling his government.

In this election, Congress has decided to contest 15 seats, giving 13 seats to its a the DMK. While, the CPI and the VCK will field their candidates on one seat each.