Azad, Wasnik to meet Karunanidhi this weekend

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik are going to Tamil Nadu on February 13, possibly for discussions with DMK chief M Karunanidhi after indications emerged that the two parties were tying up for the coming Assembly polls.
"The two leaders will be in Chennai on February 13 and will be meeting M Karunanidhi," said a Congress leader, who declined to be identified.
DMK spokesman T K Elangovan told PTI that both the parties are seeking a tie-up and the Congress leaders are expected soon in Tamil Nadu.
Indications have emerged that the two parties may tie up.

Only in December last year, Karunanidhi had said that Congress would be invited to join the alliance led by his party for coming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
"We will not leave Congress when we invite parties as part of DMK alliance," he had said.

Karunanidhi's statement had come nearly three years after snapping ties with Congress.
Congress is out of power in Tamil Nadu for nearly five decades and has generally been aligning with either of the Dravidian parties - DMK or AIADMK. Sometimes, it had contested alone too but without much success.
AICC has given signals that the decision on the issue of alliances would be taken keeping in mind the aim of checking ruling BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the view of the state units on tie-ups in their areas.

Incidentally with 18 MPs, the DMK was the second largest ally of Congress in the UPA II after Trinamool Congress which had 19 MPs.
The DMK-Congress alliance swept all the 40 Lok Sabha seats including the lone Puducherry seat in the 2004 elections and won 28 seats in the 2009 general elections. The combine also won the 2006 Assembly elections, though DMK could not get a majority on its own.
The 2011 Assembly saw a rout of both DMK and Congress with J Jayalalitha's AIADMK romping home with a thumping majority.