New Delhi: The Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress on Wednesday signed a formal agreement on seat sharing in Chennai. The DMK has allotted 63 seats to the Congress.
The three days of political drama ended on Tuesday with the DMK conceding 63 seats for the Congress in Tamil Nadu polls.
"We are happy to announce the alliance. It's a winning alliance and we will come back to power again," said Gulam Nabi Azad.
The Congress and the DMK were deadlocked on a deal over sharing of seats in the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly elections following DMK's decision on Saturday to pull out its ministers from the UPA Government over Congress attitude.
The Congress was insisting on contesting 63 seats whereas the DMK was prepared to give 60, twelve more over the number Congress contested in the last elections. DMK was also not wiling to concede to Congress the choice of seats.
On Friday night, Karunanidhi had accused the Congress of being unreasonable by escalating the demand for seats from 50 to 53 to 57 and then to 60. And after agreeing to settle for 60, the party later raised the demand to 63, he had complained.
DMK's sudden announcement of resignation by its ministers on Saturday took the Congress by surprise. A miffed Congress - used to succumbing to allied pressure - decided to finally take a stand. Congress sources said that what upset it the most was the demand by the party to go slow on the family with regard to 2G investigations. Congress said its hands were tied by the Supreme Court order. It’s when the DMK was unrelenting that Sonia decided to step in.
The DMK-Congess alliance is back on track after Sonia Gandhi decided to step in. An angry Sonia even ticked off Azhagiri and Dayanidhi Maran. Sources said that she accused the DMK of violating the coalition dharma. She went on to suggest that her party was prepared to go it alone in the elections.
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