Tamil Nadu   

48 seats to be contested by Congress identified, pact signed

S. Vydhianathan

Discussions with PMK in progress, says Karunanidhi

HAPPY ENDING: DMK president M. Karunanidhi and Congress Working Committee Member Veerappa Moily (centre) talking to reporters after the signing of the seat-sharing agreement at Anna Arivalayam in Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: K.V . Srinivasa n

CHENNAI: After marathon negotiations spread over two days, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress completed their seat-sharing exercise on Wednesday morning, identifying 48 constituencies earmarked for the Congress.

DMK president M. Karunanidhi and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president M. Krishnasswamy signed the agreement at the DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam here.

Both sides satisfied

Congress Working Committee member in-charge of the Tamil Nadu unit M. Veerappa Moily told reporters that the constituencies had been identified to the satisfaction of both the parties. As the Congress had to fulfil the aspirations of numerous cadres it had to negotiate hard for certain constituencies. This prolonged the discussions. He thanked Mr. Karunanidhi for smooth completion of the process.

Mr. Karunanidhi told reporters that identification of seats for the Communist parties and the Indian Union Muslim League had also been completed. The party initiated discussions with the Pattali Makkal Katchi in the evening. (Indications are that an agreement would be reached on Thursday.)

The whole exercise, he said, would be completed in a day or two after which the names of constituencies allotted to the constituents of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) would be announced.

Earlier in the day, the negotiating teams of the Congress and the DMK resumed their discussions.

While they had tentatively finalised 35 constituencies on Tuesday, there were differences on the remaining 13 seats.

These constituencies were finalised after two hours of negotiations.

Seats in Chennai

According to a Congress leader, the party wanted to contest at least two seats in Chennai city. But the DMK was ready to give only one, most probably R.K. Nagar. Both the Congress and the PMK had staked claim on certain seats in northern districts and Mr. Karunanidhi had to strike a balance between the parties to arrive at a final settlement. Both the parties were sworn to secrecy till the allocation of seats for all parties is completed.

Before beginning the negotiations Mr. Moily had tête-à-tête with Mr. Karunanidhi for about 15 minutes. Apart from Mr. Moily and Mr. Krishnasswamy, Union Ministers P. Chidambaram, G.K. Vasan and E.V.K.S. Elangovan and Congress Legislature Party leader S.R. Balasubramoniyan represented the Congress. On behalf of the DMK, Arcot N. Veerasamy, Durai Murugan, M.K. Stalin, and Veerapandi S. Arumugam, in addition to Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran, A. Raja and Subbulakshmi Jegadeesan participated.

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