DMK pulls out of UPA
Talks on seat-sharing for TN polls fail
AGENCIES
Chennai, March 5: Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK on Saturday ended its seven-year alliance with the Congress and pulled out of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government after running into roadblocks over seat sharing in Assembly elections only a month away.
The dramatic decision, announced after a meeting of DMK leaders including Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, robbed Manmohan Singh’s Government of majority support in the Lok Sabha where the Congress-led UPA coalition will now have only 256 MPs.
But with the DMK saying it would still give “issue-based support”, a stand similar to that of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress sources said there was no immediate danger to the UPA government.
The DMK move, however, took the Congress by surprise. One of its leaders, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, called the decision “sudden”.
The DMK move followed the Congress insistence on contesting from 63 of Tamil Nadu’s 234 assembly seats while a peeved DMK was willing to concede only 60.
As the Congress remained adamant and reportedly made it clear that it would also pick the 63 seats, Karunanidhi lashed out past Friday midnight, calling the Congress stand “unjustified”.
At the Saturday evening meeting, DMK leaders voiced bitterness vis-a-vis the Congress and decided it was time to part ways with a party they had allied with since the 2004 LS polls.
