Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi here to discuss the electoral alliance and formally announced that the tie-up continued for the 2011 Assembly election in State. Both the parties would soon announce committees to work out modalities of seats sharing. Expressing satisfaction over the 45-minute discussions he held with Ms. Gandhi, Mr. Karunanidhi said the names of the leaders who would find place on the committees would be announced shortly. Thereafter, the discussions would begin.
DMK Rajya Sabha MP and Mr. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, his grandnephew and Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran and DMK parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu were present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said that there would be no problem on seat-sharing issue between the Congress and the DMK. “We are alliance partners both at the Centre and in the State. Between the alliance partners, there are always constructive discussions and healthy dialogue.”
The Congress clinched the electoral alliance with the DMK a few months prior to the 2004 Lok Sabha poll and the alliance had successfully contested that poll , the 2006 Assembly election and the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and won a majority of the seats comfortably to form governments at the Central and State levels.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met Mr. Karunanidhi late in the night at Tamil Nadu House here and discussed the general political situation.
Keywords: TN Assembly polls, DMK-Congress alliance, UPA, Sonia Gandhi, M. Karunanidhi
