DMK pulls out of UPA govt, withdraws its 6 ministers

Chennai:  Just a month ahead of Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the seven-year-old Congress-DMK alliance
is teetering with the DMK deciding to pull of the UPA government at the Centre, withdrawing its six cabinet ministers. At the core of this is the two parties' inability to agree on seat sharing in the state - the Congress wants to contest more seats than the DMK is willing to give. (Read: What upset the DMK)

After a high-level meeting on Saturday evening, the DMK also said it would now only extend issue-based support to the UPA government. So saying, however, the party has left some doors open. Party spokesman TKS Elangovan said, "If Congress comes with a proposal we will think about it." And senior DMK leader TR Baalu made clear that this was about seat sharing alone and the two parties remained friends.  (Watch: Congress putting undue pressure on us, says DMK Spokesperson) | (Watch: Friends with Congress, this is about seat-sharing, says Baalu)

But at the DMK meeting, party chief M Karunanidhi said: "We are compelled to suspect that these are all the efforts by Congress to remove us from the UPA. Under these circumstances we have to think whether to continue in the government."

"In the circumstances, we have to think whether to continue in the Union Government. So we have decided to relieve ourselves from the government," he added.


The two parties had held three rounds of discussions on seat-sharing for the April 13 Assembly elections this week, but there was little headway. The Congress made it clear that it wanted to contest many more seats than the 48 it had fought on in the last elections and, if the alliance came to power, wanted to be included in the government.

Earlier in the day, DMK chief Karunanidhi said he had offered 60 seats, but the 63 that the Congress wanted was unfair. In a statement in Chennai, he said, "Both parties had agreed that the Congress would get 51 seats. But the DMK offered 60 seats. Is it right to demand 63 seats? Is it fair for the Congress to decide on the constituencies it would contest?"

The Congress' demands and tough stand on seats seemed to come as the last straw in a marriage that has seen quite a bit of turbulence in the recent past. The DMK is already upset about its central minister A Raja being sacked over the 2G scam, over CBI raids at Kalaignar TV, the channel owned by Karunanidhi's wife and the threat of his daughter Kanimozhi being questioned on 2G scam. (Watch: 2G probe against DMK triggered fallout, says Cho Ramaswamy)

The DMK's announcement sent people on both sides of the political spectrum running to their calculators to see how the decision would affect numbers in the Lok Sabha, which is in session.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/dmk-pulls-out-of-upa-govt-withdraws-its-6-ministers-89640?cp