Pranab meets Karunanidhi to discuss portfolio allocation

Amid reports that DMK is staking claim to seven Cabinet berths in the new government, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee today met party chief M Karunanidhi here to discuss portfolio allocation.

Mukherjee was accompanied by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu, and Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress president, when he met Karunanidhi at Tamil Nadu Bhavan. DMK leaders, including T R Baalu and Dayanidhi Maran, were also present during the meeting along with Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi.

DMK, which has won 18 seats on its own and brought a total of 28 seats from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in alliance with Congress, is said to be staking claim to seven berths in the new government, the same number it had in the outgoing ministry.

Azhagiri, Maran, Kanimozhi and A Raja are said to be in the reckoning for cabinet berths while new entrant T K S Elangovan could be given a Minister of State slot.

Helen Davidson, who won Kanyakumari seat for the first time for DMK, is also being seen as a possible candidate for a Minister of State seat. DMK's share this time is two more than in the dissolved Lok Sabha. Karunanidhi met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday soon after his arrival here.