BeyondHeadlines News Desk
Chennai: The seat sharing dispute between the Congress party and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) for the April 13 assembly election in Tamil Nadu is expected to be resolved by today’s evening, said DMK MP and Spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan while addressing the media here. He said: “The Congress has asked time till the evening. We have another four to five hours.”
He said that his party is still on its previous stand. The DMK, which has 18 members in the Lok Sabha (upper house of Indian parliament), is likely to make a decision today on the resignation of its six ministers from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led union cabinet.
After meeting UPA Chairperson and Congress party President Sonia Gandhi late last night, MK Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran along with another DMK leader SS Palanimanickammet met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today.
Union Health Minister and Congress’ incharge for Tamil Nadu Gulam Nabi Azad confirmed that the status quo continues.
“No I can’t say anything. So far present stage is concerned, the deadlock is there and nothing has been resolved so far. Yesterday they had asked for time till this evening so we still have time to decide,” said Azad.
Yesterday, the party had decided to suspend the seat-sharing negotiation with the Congress party and withdraw its support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The DMK considers the Congress party’s demand of 63 seats of its choice to contest in the April 13 polls for the 234 member house unjustifiable.
However, hectic negotiations were held yesterday between the top shots of both the parties to save the seven-year-old alliance.
Meanwhile, the DMK today started interviewing aspiring candidates in the state. The interview panel is headed by party president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi himself. The interviews will go on till March 13.
