Comments
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday deferred the resignation of six of its Ministers from the Union Cabinet by a day. This followed telephonic conversations between the DMK supremo, Mr M. Karunanidhi, and Congress leader, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.
In Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister, Mr M.K. Stalin, said that Mr Mukherjee had sought a day's time to sort out issues.
The DMK MP, Ms K. Kanimozhi, said that talks between her party and the Congress were still on and that a “clear picture” would emerge only on Tuesday. The DMK and Congress have been involved in hectic talks after the former threatened to pull out of the UPA Government over a tussle on seat-sharing for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections due on April 13.
Sources said that DMK was willing to maintain status quo on the 48 seats that the Congress already holds. The differences, however, arose on the issue of the additional 12 seats. The Congress wanted winnable seats, but the DMK was unwilling to relent. The DMK made it clear that the offer of 60 seats to Congress was final, sources added.
Earlier in the day, Mr Mukherjee met the DMK leader and Textile Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, who was in New Delhi to reportedly submit his resignation along with five other DMK Ministers. The Union Health Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Ms Sonia Gandhi's Political Secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel, were also present in the meeting.
Mr Mukherjee also held consultations with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, according to agency reports. The Home Minister is reported to be heading the Congress negotiating committee on Tamil Nadu.
Earlier, at a Congress briefing, spokesperson Dr Abhishek Singhvi, when asked whether Congress was open to the idea of aligning with the AIADMK, said, “I am not going into any speculative and hypothetical question at this stage.”
To questions on the fate of the alliance with DMK, he said, “Our alliance is at the same stage where it was earlier. No new facts or developments have come so far.”
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.