Chennai:
Just a month ahead of Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the DMK has decided to withdraw its ministers from the Union Cabinet as Congress and the DMK could not agree on seat sharing. The DMK will now only extend issue-based support to the UPA government.
This was decided at meeting of a high-level committee of the DMK this evening. The meeting had been called to decide on continuing the party's alliance with the Congress. Party chief M Karunanidhi was present at the meeting.
"We are compelled to suspect that these are all efforts by Congress to push us out of the UPA. Under these circumstances we have to think whether to continue in the government...So we have decided to relieve ourselves from the government," Karunanidhi told the meeting.
The two parties 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. And he threatened to call off the alliance.
In a statement in Chennai, Karunanidhi 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?"
With 18 MPs, the DMK is the second largest ally of Congress in the UPA after Trinamool Congress which has 19 MPs.
Tamil Nadu will vote on April 13, and the results will be declared on May 13 for the state's 234 seats.