The DMK on Monday, put on hold the resignations of its six ministers from the United Progressive Alliance government. The Congress and the DMK are now engaged in hectic negotiations to sort out their seat-sharing problems in Tamil Nadu.
On a day of hectic developments, senior Congress leader and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee telephoned DMK chief M Karunanidhi twice, and urged him not to pull out his ministers from the cabinet during the Budget Session, and sought a day's time to resolve their problems.
"Mukherjee called him twice during the day. The Congress has asked for a day's time. So, the withdrawal has been put on hold until Tuesday," Deputy Chief Minister and DMK treasurer M K Stalin told newspersons at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters in Chennai.
Asked when the issue will be resolved, Stalin said," They have asked for a day." DMK MP Kanimozhi said the talks between her party and the Congress were still on, and that a 'clear picture' will emerge only on Tuesday. The turn of events took place after Mukherjee held a series of meeting first with DMK minister Dayanidhi Maran, followed by discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, Union Health Minister and Congress in-charge of party affairs in Tamil Nadu Ghulam Nabi Azad and Home Minister P Chidambaram were present during the discussions between Maran and Mukherjee.
Shortly before the six ministers, including Maran and M K Alagiri were to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and handover their resignations Chidambaram met Mukherjee for a second time. Mukherjee then called Karunanidhi, seeking a day's time to come back with Congress' position on the seat-sharing issue. Sources said that the DMK made it clear that the offer of 60 seats to Congress was final and that the choice of constituencies could be negotiated.
Mukherjee had called DMK Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu late on Sunday night, and asked him to convey to Karunanidhi to not withdraw the ministers. Baalu told mediapersons that there was no question of reconsidering the decision. Though notwithstanding the call, the six ministers left Chennai in the morning for Delhi to meet the prime minister and tender their resignations. The appointment was rescheduled from morning to evening and was finally called off in the evening against the backdrop of hectic talks between the two sides.
Congress sources in Delhi said a solution could emerge in a day or two and dismissed suggestions of a threat to the Central government. "Have you seen well-established alliances breaking up a fortnight before election campaigning is to start on an issue such as a demand for three more seats? It's not a major issue. We are hopeful it will be resolved Monday night or latest by Tuesday night. If it does not resolve by Wednesday, then there will be indeed serious problems," a senior party leader said on condition of anonymity.
The leader also did not attach much importance to DMK's possible execution of the threat of its ministers' resigning. "Resignations do not make much difference. They can also be withdrawn later," he said, adding that he was 'hopeful' of an early solution to the problem which he described as 'nothing else but hard bargaining for seats which is natural in an alliance'.
At the All India Congress Committee briefing, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi described the talks of a threat to the UPA government as the creation of 'a fertile imagination.'
Asked whether Congress was open to the idea of aligning with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, he remarked "I am not going into any speculative and hypothetical question at this stage."
Singhvi's refrain to a host of questions on the fate of the alliance, including whether Congress has dumped DMK in a big brotherly act, was, "There are no new developments. Our alliance is at the same stage where it was earlier."
He added that the party has nothing more to say at this time. "Let us not speculate. We'll share it with you when we have something in due course," he said.
Peeved over the Congress' demand for 63 seats against the agreed 60 for the assembly polls in the state, the DMK had announced on Saturday its decision to walk out of the cabinet, saying it would extend only 'issue-based' support.
Azad, who had negotiated with the DMK on seat sharing for the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, said there was no breakthrough in the deadlock as of now. "As of now there is no breakthrough. Let us hope.... (We will see) what is going to happen in the course of the day," Azad told mediapersons in Parliament.
Image : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi
