Chennai: Talks on seat sharing between the DMK president M K Stalin and Congress leaders, including Ajoy Kumar and Sirivella Prasad from the AICC and TNCC president Selva Perunthogai, began at the Secretariat on Thursday but did not make any headway.
Stalin is said to have told the AICC representatives that a final call could be taken on the number of seats that could be allocated to the Congress only after the committee appointed to look into it took a decision on it.
The Congress leaders, accompanied by a party delegation, had asked the DMK to not reduce the number of seats allotted to the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which it won eight of the nine seats it contested.
But the DMK is said to be keen on allotting less seats to the Congress, the biggest ally in the coalition in the State, as it had to give more seats to the VCK, Makkal Needhi Maiam of Kamal Haasan and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi.
Of the erstwhile allies, only the India Jananayaka Katchi of T R Paarivendhar had switched loyalties to the NDA, while the demand for seats had increased from the old allies.
Though it was expected that the Congress would take a cut in the number of seats in view of Selva Perunthogai taking over as TNCC chief, the party functionaries, with whom Ajoy Kumar and Sirivella Prasad spoke before meeting the Chief Minister, had expressed the view that they should at least get the same number if not more.
