March 7: That the DMK-Congress rapprochement talks were heading nowhere was clear when the Union minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, met a team of Congress “crisis managers” led by the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, at the latter’s Room No. 13 office at Parliament House on Monday morning.
Mr Maran’s grim visage and reluctance to talk to mediapersons waiting at Parliament House was the first indication that all was not well. Mr P. Chidambaram, who was in the Congress’ seat-negotiating panel, met Mr Mukherjee twice in New Delhi on Monday. Mr Mukherjee then called the DMK chief, Mr M. Karunanidhi, seeking a day’s time to come back with the Congress’ position on the seat-sharing issue.
Following that meeting, the appointment of the six DMK ministers with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to submit their resignation letters was rescheduled from the morning to the evening and finally called off. The DMK ministers and MPs were not seen in the Lok Sabha during the morning session, a sign of their nervousness about the developments.
Room No. 13 was the centre of activity. Mr Mukherjee had a series of meetings with Congress leaders, the Union ministers, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mr Chidambaram, the Congress president’s political secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel, and the DMK’s Mr Maran.