By IANS,
New Delhi/Chennai : The Congress has sought at least 75 seats from Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK for the April 13 assembly polls as also a place in the government in case of an electoral victory, party leaders said.
Congress leaders tasked with seat-sharing talks met party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi Tuesday and briefed her about their discussions with DMK leaders last week.
Party sources said that those who attended the meeting included Home Minister P.Chidambaram, Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan, and Tamil Nadu Congress chief K.V.Thangkabalu.
Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president, was also present at the meeting.
The sources said Gandhi told the party leaders to continue their discussions with DMK.
“A decision on seat-sharing is expected to be clinched at the next meeting,” a Congress leader told IANS.
The leader said that DMK had agreed to give 53 seats but the Congress was insisting on 75-80 seats. The party had contested 48 seats in the 2006 polls.
Welcoming the announcement of a single-phase poll, Thangkabalu told IANS that they are “happy with the announcement”. “We wanted single-phase polling and the Election Commission has announced accordingly.”
On the seat sharing talks with the DMK, he said they expected the seat sharing negotiations to be concluded soon, but added no date has been fixed for the third round of talks with the DMK.
The DMK and Congress have held two rounds of talks on seat-sharing.
The Congress has also suggested a common minimum programme if the DMK-led alliance emerges victorious as also a coordination committee having representation from all allies
Natarajan told reporters that talks were progressing in a very cordial atmosphere. “We will try to get the best during seat-sharing talks keeping in mind our support among the people. We are a national party,” she said.