The Hindu : Front Page : Marathon seat-sharing talks under way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Marathon seat-sharing talks under way

Special Correspondent

DMK, Congress hopeful of signing deal

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

CRUCIAL MEETING: Congress and DMK leaders arrive for talks at Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: A Congress delegation consisting of AICC representatives and State leaders had a marathon session with a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam panel at Anna Arivalayam on Tuesday night.

The talks over the final identification of constituencies went on late into the night with a view to sign an agreement.

The Congress delegation consisted among others the CWC member in-charge of Tamil Nadu affairs, Veerappa Moily; Union Ministers P. Chidambaram, G.K. Vasan and E.V.K. S. Elangovan, and the TNCC chief M. Krishnassamy.

From the DMK's side, the negotiating committee head Arcot N. Veerasamy, Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran and party seniors Durai Murugan and Veerapandi S. Arumugam discussed the "wish list" of constituencies submitted by the Congress earlier. Sources in both parties expressed optimism on clinching an agreement later at night.

Once the list of constituencies was finalised, the Congress team was expected to meet DMK president M. Karunanidhi and ink an agreement.

Earlier, Mr.Karunanidhi in a statement said that seat sharing talks in the Democratic Progressive Alliance were carried out after obtaining lists of constituencies each party wanted to contest and after discussing with all of them to ensure that there was no overlap of constituencies. This was to prevent any problems in the front.

This process, he claimed, was in sharp contrast to what was happening in the other camp, where the ruling party was reportedly taking away seats its allies wanted to contest.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail