The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Congress begins talks with DMK, seeks share in power

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Congress begins talks with DMK, seeks share in power

T. Ramakrishnan and G. Sathyamoorthi

Common minimum programme proposed

CHENNAI: The Congress is learnt to have demanded a share in power in the seat-sharing talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) here on Sunday, according to sources in both parties.

A common minimum programme for a coalition government in Tamil Nadu and forming a coordination committee were among the proposals mooted by the Congress. The DMK is said to have told the Congress that it had to discuss the matter with party president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

In the 75-minute-long talks at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters, the ruling party was represented by Deputy Chief Minister and DMK treasurer, M.K. Stalin, Ministers Arcot N. Veeraswami, Durai Murugan, K. Ponmudy and the DMK parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu, while the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.V. Thangkabalu, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan and AICC national secretary and K. Jayakumar, MLA, represented the Congress.

Mr. Thangkabalu told mediapersons that the talks were cordial and satisfactory. “We discussed every aspect threadbare. We will convey to our respective leaderships the details of our deliberations,” he said. The second round of talks would be held “in a day or two,” Mr Thangkabalu said. Mr Stalin endorsed Mr. Thangkabalu's remarks.

When reporters asked about the number of seats, identification of constituencies and power-sharing, Mr. Thangkabalu said, “We will let you know all these things after the next round of talks”. He said the Congress and the DMK had been “very cordially working together” for more than six years. This would continue, and “we will have a strong and victorious alliance”. In the 2006 Assembly elections, the DMK allotted 48 seats to the Congress, which won 35. As DMK has already entered into an agreement with the Pattali Makkal Katchi for 31 seats, its manoeuvrability is severely restricted with junior partners such as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) seeking 15. In 2006, the VCK, then part of the AIADMK-led front, was allotted nine seats.

The DMK, which needs to win at least 118 of the total 234 to form a government on its own, would like to contest at least 140 seats. In 2006, it contested 132 seats and won 96.

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