The three-day tussle between the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) over seat-sharing finally ended on Tuesday with the DMK leadership agreeing to allot 63 seats to the Congress in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on April 13.

By giving in to the demand of 63 seats by the Congress, an increase of 15 over the number of seats the party got in the 2006 Assembly elections, the DMK was finally back to where it started on Saturday when the party supremo, Mr M Karunanidhi, threatened to pull out from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. He had offered to give only issue-based support to the UPA.

The tussle was resolved after a series of meetings were held here between the Congress leader Mr Pranab Mukherjee and the Textiles Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran. “We will contest 63 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections under a deal with DMK,” Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior Congress leader, told newspersons outside 10, Janpath, the official residence of Ms Sonia Gandhi, Congress President and UPA Chairperson.

Apart from the two senior Congress leaders, also present at the talks was Ms Gandhi's Political Secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel. The final seal of approval came from Ms Gandhi.

Choice of constituencies

According to reports, it was not clear whether the two parties had agreed on the Congress' demand for its choice of constituencies and power sharing after the elections. As the drama unfolded during the day, Mr Maran had to wait for almost an hour in Parliament as Mr Mukherjee was busy in the House proceedings. Interestingly, even as hectic parleys were on between the two parties, DMK MP Ms Kanimozhi attended question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

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