Assembly elections: DMK, Cong yet to arrive at seat sharing deal

The stalemate in seat sharing talks between DMK and Congress for the April 13 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu persisted with the AICC President Ms Sonia Gandhi’s special emissary Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad leaving for New Delhi today after his inconclusive talks with the DMK chief Mr M. Karunanidhi.

The scheduled meeting between Mr Karunanidhi and Mr Azad this morning was cancelled with the Congress leader deciding to rush to New Delhi.

Before his departure, Mr Azad told reporters at the airport here that he had a long discussion with Mr Karunanidhi late last night. “Whatever has come out of the discussion, I have to discuss with my leadership”, he said. “We will have another round of meeting soon”, he said.

Asked whether the Congress’ demand for increased number of seats and a share in power had led to the present situation, he shot back, “No, no’’.

Mr Azad, in charge of Congress affairs in Tamil Nadu, flew in here last night to pick up the threads from the second round of discussions the two parties had on February 25.

The talks have, however, not been able to break the deadlock with the parties haggling hard over the number of seats and power sharing.

With the Election Commission announcing the schedule for the single phase polls and barely 16 days left for filing of nominations to begin, the two key UPA allies are under increasing pressure to reach a seat sharing deal.

The DMK has completed the seat sharing exercise with minor allies like PMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, IUML and Movendar Munnetra Kazhagam.

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