Chennai: The DMK high command on Friday constituted three committees for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Lok Sabha MP K Kanimozhi will be in charge of preparing the ruling party’s manifesto.

The committee for seat sharing talks will be headed by the parliamentary party leader TR Baalu and it controversially includes convicted and disqualified minister K Ponmudy. Sports minister and DMK youth wing head Udhayanidhi Stalin also figured for the first time in the list as one of the five members of a committee that will oversee the coordination of the election work. The other members are senior party leaders, including finance minister Thangam Thennarasu, municipal administration minister K N Nehru, organisation secretary R S Bharathi, and public works minister E V Velu.

“This committee will coordinate and monitor work for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” read a statement from chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin.

It will be a three-cornered fight in Tamil Nadu for 39 Lok Sabha seats and a lone seat in the neighbouring union territory of Puducherry with the DMK coalition versus the AIADMK versus the BJP.

In September last year, the AIADMK left the four-year-old alliance with the BJP that was formed ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The DMK said their Secular Progressive Alliance which includes the Congress, Left parties and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (V C K – formerly Dalit Panthers of India) will be intact for the parliamentary elections. They are also part of the INDIA bloc formed against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

Besides Baalu and Ponmudy, the six member committee to negotiate with alliance partners are Nehru, parliamentarian A Raja, rural development minister I Periyasamy, and agriculture minister M R K Panneerselvam.

Kanimozhi will head an 11-member committee of party spokesperson T K S Ilangovan, IT minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, industries minister T R B Rajaa, Thousand Lights Assembly constituency legislator Dr N Ezhilan, Chennai mayor R Priya, Kancheepuram legislator C V M P Ezhilarasan, parliamentarian M M Anbullah, party whip Govi Chezhian, MP K R N Rajeshkumar, and former parliamentarian A K S Vijayan.