Solution to Cong-DMK deadlock as reports of deal emerge
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Congress, DMK seemed to have made the first actual progress into the week-old deadlock over seat sharing.
The parties have now agreed to 61 of DMK's own seats and two from the PMK.
The Congress was insisting on contesting 63 seats whereas the DMK was prepared to give only 60, 12 more than the number Congress contested in the last elections.
DMK was also not wiling to concede to Congress the choice of seats.
The parties were earlier keeping expectations of a deal alive as senior leaders from both parties expressed hope that the deadlock will soon be resolved.
"They (DMK) are our ally... It is not over... We are definitely hopeful," a senior Congress leader and Union minister said when asked whether the alliance with DMK has come to an end.
The remark came after two rounds of talks DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran had with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee after failure to reach a breakthrough during a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi last night.
The minister, who declined to be identified, dismissed suggestions that Congress was looking at doing business with AIADMK.
It was the same refrain at the AICC briefing with party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan snapping, "I am not aware of any such channel", when asked whether Congress has been talking to AIADMK through back channels. Natarajan, however, remained tightlipped on the developments saying the party will make an announcement in this regard as soon as they will have anything to share. She gave the same answer in response to repeated questions on the fate of the alliance.
DMK MP Kanimozhi also expressed the hope that the deadlock will be resolved soon. "We have been allies for a very long time and I hope things will settle," she told reporters inside Parliament Complex here. When asked whether the alliance will break, she said, "I cannot answer hypothetical questions."
A senior Congress leader also alleged there was 'more than what meets the eye' in DMK's sudden action of withdrawal of support and did not rule out possibility of the ally seeking some sort of guarantee to protect the family members of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi from the ongoing investigations into 2G spectrum scam.
"How can any such assurance be given," the leader wondered noting that it was a CBI investigation being monitored by the Supreme Court. DMK has so far dismissed the suggestions that its decision to withdraw support from the government had anything to do with the 2G issue.
A section in the Congress believes that a way out would be found out sooner than latter with DMK itself realising the problems it could face by such an action.
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