March 10: The hectic bargain between the ruling DMK and the Congress continued on Thursday and the two could not reach a consensus on identifying constituencies even after two rounds of negotiations. However, both parties are hopeful of reaching an agreement by Friday evening.
After playing a key role in brokering peace between the DMK and Congress in finalising the number of seats, DMK functionaries and Union ministers M.K. Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran too found space in the seat negotiating team of the party. At the end of the first round of the talks, which decided the contours of the formula to identify seats, TNCC president K.V. Thangkabalu said all 63 seats that his party would be contesting in the April 13 polls would be identified in the evening. But his hopes crashed since the half-an-hour meeting in the evening ended inconclusively.
Sources said the deadlock in allocating seats rose from the Congress demanding seats desired by DMK heavyweights and allies PMK and VCK. “We have submitted our wish list. The DMK needs to talk to other allies too. I hope the issue would be amicably solved tomorrow,” Mr Thangkabalu told reporters emerging out of Anna Arivalayam.
A senior DMK leader involving in the talks said only 42 seats had been finalised. “Talks are progressing smoothly as both the sides adopt give and take policy,” he said. However, Congress sources say an informal agreement has been reached over identifying 55 seats.
While insisting that all 35 sitting seats be re-allotted to the Congress, a senior leader said the party had submitted a wishlist comprising up to 60 seats to shortlist the remaining 28. The Congress has been seeking Mylapore, Royapuram, T. Nagar, Villivakkam, Valasaravakkam and Kolathur seats in Chennai city.