Seat-sharing: Cong begins talks

The DMK and Congress on Sunday began their alliance discussions at Anna Arivalayam,where the CBI,on the trail of the 2G spectrum scam probe,had conducted searches two days ago.

The Congress team comprising Union Ministers P Chidambaram and G K Vasan,state Congress president K V Thangkabalu,party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan and MLA K Jayakumar drove into the DMK headquarters in the evening to hold formal discussions with the DMK team that was led by party treasurer and deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin.

Emerging from the hour-long meeting,committee members from both sides maintained that the exercise was largely exploratory in nature. They will now convey the feedback to their respective higher authorities in Delhi and Gopalapuram.

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The meeting came amid intense speculation about the number of seats that the national party would get this time. The Congress contested from 48 constituencies in 2006,but the political environment and alliance equations were different then.

With the DMK now pushed to the backfoot over the 2G scam probe,there have been demands for a much better deal which includes better representation and share in power.

However,Thangkabalu and Stalin insisted that the meeting did not discuss the detailed contours of the alliance. The two sides would soon return to the table for a second meeting with clearer instructions from their leadership,after which more details would be revealed,the leaders said.

Sources said the Congress team did in fact put across a figure of 80 Assembly constituencies at the meeting. The regional party is believed to have asked them to wait till it finished negotiations with smaller allies like the Dalit outfit VCK. The second round of meeting is expected once those figures are finalised.

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Compared to the seat-sharing deal within the UPA five years ago,the reshuffling of the alliance,which included the exit of the Left parties,has vacated over 20 constituencies. But the figure is not as rosy as it sounds since much of it would be appropriated by the newcomers like VCK (which received nine seats from the AIADMK last year),and other minor community-based outfits.

The opposition AIADMK,in the meantime,has completed second round of discussions with the CPM and CPI.