Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran on Thursday said his party will consider tying up with the Congress if it walks away from its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Last week, Dinakaran had ruled out an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu.

“On our own, we will win 37 seats in the Lok Sabha elections,” Dinakaran told reporters after meeting AMMK General Secretary VK Sasikala in jail in Bengaluru, The New Indian Express reported. Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha seats. “Already, many are in touch with us for forging an alliance. At present, the Congress is in alliance with the DMK. Let that party come out of that alliance. After that, we will consider forging an alliance with the Congress.”

“If the need arises, we will contest alone,” News18 quoted Dinakaran as saying. He added that his party was ready for simultaneous polls in December or January itself.

The DMK, meanwhile, said it would form an anti-BJP front but would decide on its allies only before the elections. “The DMK’s primary focus is to dislodge the autocratic BJP government and ensure the unconstitutional All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government is removed from Tamil Nadu,” spokesperson Manu Sundaram said. “The only political dispensation that can save Tamil Nadu from the clutches of this BJP-AIADMK combine and form the next government will have to be led by the DMK.”

The state Congress unit said the high command would take the final decision on an alliance closer to the elections, News18 quoted unidentified officials as saying.