Karunanidhi, Azad discuss strategy, not seat numbers

Kick-starting the process after the two parties entered into an alliance for the polls last month, Congress senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik met DMK chief Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence and held talks. Speaking to reporters after nearly a hour-long talks with the Dravidian patriarch, Azad said the “discussion of election strategy was the main purpose.” Answering a question, he said, “Insofar as seat sharing is concerned, we just raised this issue. We have not firmed up the numbers and have given some time for DMK also (to decide).” “They will also think about numbers and finally we will also discuss among ourselves, with our leadership, the PCC chief and other (Tamil Nadu) leaders and may be the second time we will be able to firm up the numbers,” he said. Poll strategy Asked how many seats his party was expecting, he said, “No. We did not discuss numbers. As I said, our basic purpose was to discuss election strategy and also to find out as to how many other groups are joining and how many have already joined. That was the basic purpose.”

“Of course, we have told the DMK leadership that we should finalise the numbers also,” he said, adding the number of seats that will be contested by Congress and other partners in the DMK-led front should be decided. He said this is “not the final meeting,” and seat-sharing could be decided in subsequent talks. Later, Azad and Wasnik held discussions with TNCC leaders at party headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan. Cordial rendezvous DMK treasurer MK Stalin described the meeting as cordial and said “they have expressed their opinion, similarly, our party chief Karunanidhi has expressed his views and the discussion happened cordially.” Congress sources said the party has told DMK about the number of seats it wanted to contest. Also, the DMK has given an indicative number to it which will be communicated to the AICC, they added.