DMK, Congress formally sign seat-sharing pact

Mar 09, 2011 |

IANS

chennai

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M Karunanidhi and TNCC president KV Thangabalu after signing an agreement seats-sharing

The ruling DMK and its ally Congress formally signed the seat sharing agreement for next month's assembly polls in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, a day after the DMK agreed to the latter's demand for 63 seats in the 234 member house.

DMK president and Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi signed the deal on behalf of his party while the Congress was represented by its state chief K.V. Thangkabalu. speaking to reporters here after the deal, Thangkabalu said: "The Congress will be contesting in 63 seats. The choice of constituencies will be decided by the five member committee of each party."

According to informed sources, the Congress will be contesting in the 48 seats it contested last time and the remaining will be decided after discussions between the two parties. The run up to Wednesday's agreement saw a dramatic turn of events. On Saturday, the DMK termed the Congress demand for 63 seats to contest as unjustified and threatened to withdraw its six ministers from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.

The party announced it would offer only "issue-based" support to the UPA government from outside and called off seat sharing talks with the Congress in the state. However, with the Congress refusing to budge from its stand, it was the DMK that blinked first and agreed to the former's demand on Tuesday.

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