March 7: The alliance between the Congress and the DMK collapsed after the peace mission by the DMK ministers, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, and M.K. Alagiri, to the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, late on Monday night failed to resolve the impasse over the sharing of seats for the April 13 Assembly poll. The six DMK ministers will resign on Tuesday.
The Congress was unwilling to scale down from its demand for 63 seats whereas the DMK offered 61. “It looks like the Congress does not want us as allies. Our six ministers will be resigning tomorrow (Tuesday),” said a DMK leader about the 40-minute meeting that Mrs Gandhi had with the DMK team.
He said the DMK would have to consider “other options” since the Congress had “held an adamant position even though we were amenable to accommodate their demand, going an extra mile.”
The Congress held on to its earlier position that the party should be allowed to select its constituencies. There is some confusion in the rival AIADMK camp too, as seat-sharing talks with the Left parties and the MDMK continued to evade solutions. “This makes us suspect that Ms Jayalalithaa may be having other ideas, may be she is talking to the Congress,” said a DMK MP.