With the Tamil Nadu elections just three months away, DMK supremo and chief minister M. Karunanidhi flew into New Delhi Sunday evening on a three-day visit for seat-sharing talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. These meetings are expected Monday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had visited Chennai last week to discuss the seat-sharing formula with him.
Ahead of the last Assembly elections in 2006, it was senior Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily who flew to Chennai to negotiate seat-sharing arrangements with the DMK chief. Mr Karunnidhi said the DMK-led Democratic Progressive alliance would include the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). He told reporters: “I am here (for) talks with Mrs Sonia Gandhi on the number of seats and specific constituencies to be contested by alliance partners.” Asked if this would be finalised in the next two days, the CM said: “I cannot say.”