Taking advantage of the circumstances in which the DMK is placed, Congress has upped the ante in seat-sharing negotiations and has demanded 90 seats for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Besides that, the Congress has insisted on power-sharing, formation of a coordination committee and drawing up a common minimum programme for a five-year period, according to sources.
The first round of talks that took place in Chennai between the DMK and the Congress, a couple of days back, witnessed an exchange of views on the question of sharing seats between the alliance partners. The DMK, on its part, besides questioning the rationale for demanding such a huge number of seats, had put forward the formula that the Congress could initially take 48 seats, just as last time.
Since the Left parties that contested 23 seats in 2006 are no more with the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), that could be divided between the two equally after allotting nine seats to the Viduthalai Chiruthai Katchi (VCK). That effectively will mean that the Congress will get 55 seats.
As that was virtually rejected by the Congress, the meeting had to be adjourned sine die. The DMK has promised to consult chief minister and DMK president, M. Karunanidhi on the proposals put forward by the Congress and get back to it.
According to sources, Union home minister P. Chidambaram had also expressed his party’s displeasure over the DMK making public the number of seats that was allotted to the PMK, even before negotiations could begin with the Congress.
The DMK was represented by deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin, senior leaders T.R. Baalu, Arcot Veeraswamy, Durai Murugan and Ponmudi.
The Congress panel consisted of state Congress president Thangabalu, senior state leaders P. Chidambaram, G.K. Vasan, and party’s national spokesperson Jayanthi Natrajan and Jayakumar, an MLA.
For the Tamil Nadu chief minister, the forthcoming Assembly election is a do-or-die battle. To resolve the succession issue between his warring sons, it is imperative that he remains in power.
Also, the DMK is at the receiving end on the 2G spectrum scam, apart from allegations of his family having a finger in almost every sector of the state’s economy. Besides, the UPA government at the Centre can survive even without the DMK.