Chennai, March 2: Congress general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad is flying down to Chennai on Wednesday night to meet chief minister M. Karunanidhi and finalise the seat-sharing with longtime ally DMK for the April 13 Assembly elections.
He will catch the early morning flight to be in time for the Parliament session in Delhi.
Sources said the Congress is likely to get 55 seats (out of the total 234 in the Assembly) and that would leave the major partner DMK with about 130 to contest after allocations made to smaller allies. The influential Dalit party, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), has already been given ten seats in the DMK-led camp.
There has been much speculation in the media and political circles that the negotiations between the Congress and the DMK went sour after the second round of talks on February 25 failed to make any progress. The Congress reportedly sought 90 seats but the DMK was unwilling to go beyond 52. The Congress had contested 48 seats and won 34, while the DMK fought in 132 constituencies and won 96.
In the rival camp led by the AIADMK, actor Vijayakanth’s DMDK is likely to sign up alliance on Friday.
Meanwhile, Mr Karunanidhi has faulted the Election Commission for fixing the polling date on April 13, which gave very little time for the political parties to campaign and conduct other poll-related work.
"Where was the need for the EC to show such hurry in advancing the poll date and cause inconvenience to all?” he asked in a statement.
The BJP and the CPI (M) too have urged the EC to postpone the poll date in view of the Class-ten public examinations and also the Tamil New Year celebration on April 14.