CHENNAI: Whether or not Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and leader of the Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, announces the final seat count for allies at Sunday's Tiruchi rally, hard bargaining is still under way on seat sharing.

The allies are trying their best to secure as many seats as possible to enthuse their cadres, and the DMK certainly wants to keep a "good many" seats for itself to try for a majority on its own.

"Wish lists"

Both the DMK and the DPA constituents agree that a spirit of give and take holds the key to clinching the deal as soon as possible. All the six allies have submitted their "wish lists," had a couple of rounds of discussions with the DMK and entered the last lap of the exercise.

While the other parties may be able to clinch an arrangement on their own, the Congress will have to depend on the central leadership to finalise the seat sharing.

Extra mile

As things stand, the allies want the DMK, as the "unquestioned leader of the DPA," to walk that extra mile, give up a few more seats and make all constituents happy. Congress and Communist sources alike say it becomes important for all the allies and their cadres to get fully involved in electioneering and work together "to defeat the AIADMK." If they were given fewer seats than expected, the cadres could feel disheartened and that could lead to a slackening in fieldwork. For that reason, they would look to get a slightly larger number of seats than now on offer from the DMK.

Winnable seats

But more important than the actual numbers, the allies are keener on getting "winnable seats."

There is a feeling, going by past experience with both the DMK and the AIADMK, that the bulk of the seats allotted to allies are strongholds of the other Dravidian party. This could affect their morale.

From the DMK's standpoint, Mr. Karunanidhi has said at the very outset that it was ready for a compromise and expected the same spirit from the allies.

There were six allies to be accommodated and the "need" to keep a majority of the seats for itself — closer to 130, if the DMK has its way.

DMK leaders insist that the electorate and the party cadres would expect it to contest that many seats to drive home the message that it would be a DMK Government if the alliance won the elections.

Though the allies might secretly hope for a share in power, they stopped talking of any coalition government following Mr. Karunanidhi's clarification on this sensitive issue. But they still nurse those hopes, arguing that coalitions have come to stay and gained the acceptance of the people. That was not an issue now.

Speculation denied

Strangely, even after the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam put out a statement on remaining with the DPA, rumour mills were working overtime in the past two days about new hiccups. MDMK sources flatly denied speculation that negotiations with the AIADMK were still on.

Perhaps only when Mr. Vaiko makes his appearance at the Tiruchi DMK conference on Sunday will this episode end.

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