Chennai: The stalemate in seat-sharing negotiations between the Congress and the DMK has lifted, with the Congress team of five calling on party president Sonia Gandhi at New Delhi on Tuesday and getting her green signal to resume talks.
Informed sources said the Congress is likely to get around 55 seats — the party had demanded 90 — in the 234-member state Assembly and the agreement with senior partner DMK would be signed within the next couple of days.
With the Election Commission now announcing the election schedule for Tamil Nadu--which goes to elections along with West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry—a sense of urgency has arisen among the longtime allies to sew up the seat-sharing pact without further loss of time and begin campaign for the April 13 poll.
Also, the rumours of rancour between the Congress and the DMK over the last two rounds of negotiations, besides some tough posturing at public meetings and in media statements, caused unease among their cadres.
The second round at the DMK headquarters here on February 25 had ended abruptly and triggered speculation that the alliance could break as the Congress pitched its demand at an ‘unreasonably’ high 90 seats and a pre-poll commitment for sharing of power if the team won the election.
Sources said the Congress has climbed down to 'a reasonable allotment of seats' and also agreed to defer the power-sharing demand to after the poll.
With the deadlock now breaking, Congress is likely to depute Mr Gulam Nabi Azad, AICC general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu party affairs, to speak to DMK leader M. Karunanidhi and finalise the seat-sharing pact 'either tonight or tomorrow morning,' according to reliable sources.
The Election Commission announcement of poll schedule has also triggered urgency in the rival AIADMK-led camp. It is now expected that DMDK led by actor Vijayakanth will sign up agreement with the AIADMK on Friday.