Chennai, March 8: The differences between DMK and Congress are more or less sorted out after the meeting of DMK leader M. Karunanidhi and Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee held on Monday. It was a pre-arranged meeting and the results are very encouraging. Sonia Gandhi is satisfied over the development since Karunanidhi applied an immediate brake over the resignations of DMK Ministers.
Though the hurdle is not yet completely over, some small doubts still remain, but these are immaterial. The meeting has given a high sense of positive results to both the parties. They will have no problem in making the final adjustment towards the seat allotment.
Karunanidhi not only agreed to put on hold the resignations of his ministers, but also maintained that the Congress could not be given more than the 60 allotted seats. And Congress would not get all the constituencies it had identified, the DMK leader is said to have conveyed to Pranab.
The alliance had reached a breaking point on Saturday when the DMK high level committee deciding to pull out its six ministers from the UPA government. Congress, which started its bargain with 90 seats, had finally stuck to its demand for 63 seats. DMK said it cannot give more than 60 seats.
Following Monday’s developments, the DMK ministers’ appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been postponed from 11 am to 6 pm. The DMK leadership has assigned Union minister for textiles Dayanidhi Maran to take forward the conversation with Pranab Mukherjee.
—Agencies—