Congress-DMK deadlock ends

The DMK-Congress standoff ended today, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi conceding the Congress’ demand for 63 assembly seats in the coming elections.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in danger of becoming a minority government after six DMK ministers had threatened to resign. However, nobody went home happy. “This is not a happy alliance,” said a state Congress leader.

The deal came after day-long negotiations between emissaries, following a late night meeting on Monday between two cabinet rank ministers of the DMK — Dayanidhi Maran and M K Alagiri — and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi had expressed her displeasure with the wording and tenor of DMK’s General Council resolution and subsequent speeches that referred to her and her colleagues in disparaging terms. The Congress demand was that the DMK either apologise for the phrases or retract the resolution. Gandhi said the ministers could not expect to stay on in a government their party had criticised so bitterly and vituperatively.

Her sentiments were conveyed to Chennai, where Karunanidhi had begun interviewing candidates for the assembly elections.

This afternoon, Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran — a key member of TN Deputy Chief Minister Stalin’s camp — met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament. Karunanidhi’s daughter, Kanimozhi, entered Parliament around the same time to hear the Prime Minister’s statement on the CVC in the Rajya Sabha.

Mukherjee called Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress’s Tamil Nadu in-charge) who was having a late lunch at his office. Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, also came down from the Rajya Sabha. E Ahamed, leader of the Indian Muslim League (IUML), joined the discussion later.

After one round of discussion, Mukherjee left to have a talk with Gandhi. Then the second round began. After almost two hours of talks, the leaders went to 10 Janpath, to get the final seal on the formula.

For a while during the day, it appeared that nothing could save the alliance. But then the DMK agreed to the Congress demand and the national party decided to treat the resolution issue as closed.

People in the know said the reconciliation was also the result of a faction within the DMK headed by Alagiri impressing upon the DMK patriarch that in the southern part of the state, the rift could damage the party’s chances. Alagiri feared his chances vis-a-vis his brother, Stalin, would be jeopardised if fewer MLAs won from the Madurai region.