The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress on Thursday held two rounds of negotiations to finalise the constituencies to be contested by the latter.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.V. Thangkabalu said one more round would be held on Friday.
To a query, he replied that it was his party's endeavour to conclude the negotiations in the next round.
Both parties had exchanged their wish lists of constituencies. Other allies had to be taken into confidence before finalising the identification, he told The Hindu , after taking part in the talks at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, here.
[When the seat-sharing talks began on February 20, the Congress demanded 90 seats. Eventually, the party settled for 63 seats.]
To a question whether the Congress wanted to contest more seats or one half of its allotted seats in the northern districts, he replied: “I can only say the talks have been going on smoothly and we are hopeful of finalising the identification of constituencies smoothly.”
In the morning, after holding nearly hour-long negotiations with the DMK committee, the five-member committee of the Congress, including Union Ministers P. Chidambaram and G.K. Vasan, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan and AICC secretary K. Jayakumar, called on DMK president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
[On February 25, when the Congress committee held discussion with the DMK panel for the second time as part of the seat-sharing talks, its members left without meeting Mr Karunanidhi, who was present at the Anna Arivalayam.]
In the evening, the two committees met for about half an hour. During the negotiations, the DMK team had Union Ministers M.K. Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran, apart from other members including Deputy Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, parliamentary party leader T. R. Baalu and Ministers Durai Murugan and K. Ponmudy.
