Chennai/New Delhi: The battle of attrition between DMK and Congress escalated today as signals emerged that both parties appeared headed for a divorce from their seven-year-old alliance ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Six DMK ministers, including two at the Cabinet level, will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi tomorrow and handover their resignations in the wake of the party decision after the collapse of talks with the Congress over seat-sharing for the elections.

The DMK, which yesterday decided to pull out its Ministers from the UPA Government at the Centre, today seemingly hardened its stand even not ruling out Left parties joining its alliance.

After an informal meeting with his party leaders, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi hinted to reporters about the possibility of Left parties joining the alliance.

"Yes," he said when asked whether there was a possibility of Left parties joining the DMK-led alliance.

He also made it clear that there was no contact from Congress leadership with his party after its yesterday's decision. To a question, Karunanidhi said the Congress demand for 63 seats over the agreed number of 60 was one of the reasons for the DMK's decision.

Asked how many seats will his party contest, he said: "You will know it in one or two days."

In Delhi, highly-placed Congress sources said the party has not yet taken any decision and was keeping 'all options' open.
The options included remaining with the DMK, tying up with AIADMK or going it alone in the Assembly polls, the sources said.

"Let the DMK Ministers meet Prime Minister (to submit their resignation)...let us see what happens," they said.

Earlier, Union Chemicals Minister and Karunanidhi's son M.K. Alagiri said in Chennai that his party did not expect the Congress to 'come back' for a possible patch up.

"I am happy," he said when asked over DMK's decision to pull out from the UPA cabinet of which he is a part. He said Congress' exit from the alliance will not have any impact on DMK's poll prospects.

In Delhi, the Congress party also did not appear to be the one to be in a hurry to buckle to what it considers DMK's pressure tactics.

"No initiative will be taken by us to break the deadlock and we are prepared for DMK's move to pull out its ministers from the government," the sources said on condition of anonymity.

In the elections for 234 seats, the DMK had agreed to give 60 seats for Congress and was planning to contest in 122 seats on its own apart from giving over 50 seats to allies like PMK and some other smaller parties. The DMK has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

Congress sources said, "there is more to it (DMK's decision) than meets the eye. You don’t forego the support of 18 MPs at the Centre for getting three seats more from your ally in the seat-sharing," a senior leader said.

There is a view in the party that even if DMK withdraws support, it will not have a bearing on the survival of the Government and, as such, giving in at this juncture makes no sense as it could "create fresh problems in future". The sources dismissed reports that senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee or Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad were being dispatched to Chennai for talks with DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi to sort out issues.

DMK leader T R Baalu also said none from the Congress leadership had made any contact with the DMK high command on the current state of relations. Highly-placed sources in the DMK said they were going ahead with seat-sharing talks with PMK and allocation of seats to a number of small allies had already taken place putting restrictions on how much the party could accommodate Congress. The sources said it appears that there is no chance of a patch-up with the Congress.

The sources said there was some hardening of the stand in the party leadership today and they were not not in a mood to even repeat their last night's offer that they were prepared to consider a tie-up even at this stage if Congress confined its demand for 60 seats and gave up its condition that it would choose the constituencies it would contest.

There is also a feeling in Congress that the option of tying up with AIADMK appears to be limited because of the timing and also because she is considered a difficult ally.

The Congress leadership feels that the DMK's decision may be only posturing against the backdrop of difficulties the party was facing in view of the CBI investigations in the 2G spectrum scam in which the agency has already raided the premises of Kalaignar TV and could question Karunanidhi's family members.

DMK had surprised the Congress by announcing yesterday that it was withdrawing from the government saying that Congress did not want it to continue in the alliance.

The party accused the Congress of increasing its demand to 63 assembly seats after initially agreeing for 60 seats.

Asked about the possibility of Congress-DMK alliance survival, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, however, said, "we certainly do not subscribe to pessimistic or doomsday scenario."

He added, "Our only object is to get the best negotiated understanding both for the Congress and for the alliance as a whole."

Sources in Congress indicated that the party would not take any initiative on its own right now to woo the DMK which had taken the unilateral decision to opt out of the central government in the middle of negotiations.

"Since the announcement to pull out support has come from them, the ball is in their court to save the alliance," a senior party leader said.

Senior Congress leaders are expected to meet before the Parliament session tomorrow to review the situation.