Cong –DMK talks on ‘berth’ deal fail, MK decided to give outside support

By M Rama Rao, India Editor, Asian Tribune

New Delhi, May 22, (Asiantribune.com): Congress –DMK talks on ministerial berths broke down on Thursday night. Manmohan Singh, who is all set to swear in as the Prime Minister at 6.30pm on Friday, and Sonia Gandhi, the Congress chief, spoke to Muthavel Karunanidhi. They deputed ‘old friend’ Ghulam Nabi Azad to visit Karunanidhi at the Tamil Nadu Bhavan. It was agreed that as one last ditch effort Azad and T R Balu should meet and talk.

For the present, the Congress decided that the portfolios earmarked for DMK would not be given to other allies and instead these ministries will be with the Prime Minister himself. A clear signal that Sonia Gandhi doesn’t want ends the ties with the southern ally.

Baalu along with A Raja, another DMK senior, who was IT minister earlier, is at the centre of the discard between DMK and Congress. Singh is unwilling to take them back as his ministerial colleagues as he feels that their score card is pretty low. Not these two, anybody else is ok, was his message.

Karunanidhi reply was a one liner which Baalu told the waiting reporters in TN Bhavan lobby. “My leader Karunanidhi has advised me to inform you that DMK will support the government from outside”, the former Transport Minister said.

Karunanidhi decided to leave for Chennai by 10 AM Jet Airways flight. He has convened a meeting of the party’s executive council for consultations. The DMK patriarch doesn’t appear to entertain the prospect of a threat to his minority government which is supported from outside by the Congress. On its part the Congress would love to join his government. But he has put his foot down.

Senior Congress leaders privy to the discussions with the DMK chief, assert that the party was not looking for any trade off with the DMK. “We made this position very clear”, they said.

Congress party’s chief spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi summed up the mood when he told a questioner at his briefing that the DMK was ‘asking too much’. Without getting into specifics, he said DMK wanted "status quo" and "more" ministerial berths -- seven portfolios plus more.

Another points’ man for the media in the Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a TV channel late Thursday night that the talks with the DMK had not ended “Neither are we (Congress) arrogant nor do I say the DMK is arrogant. In politics, discussions keep taking place to find middle ground, that is what we are engaged in now”, he said.

Baalu told the media that the DMK was surprised by the insistence of a formula on allocation of ministerial portfolios to allies. ‘There was no such formula in 2004. So, why do they want now’, he asked.

It seems the Congress has no objection to the induction of M K Azhagiri, Dayanidhi Maran, and Kanimozhi, and four others. It is also ready to give back IT to Maran to the annoyance of DMK seniors, who would like to see him in the coal.

This is not brinkmanship, a senior DMK leader maintained. ‘We expect the Congress to see the issue as we see it and give one concession to a long time ally’.

According to sources, DMK is keen on Railways, which the Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Bannerjee has bagged along with the ministries of minority affairs, Coal and Mines and Steel. Mamata has already named her colleagues for these berths. She played hard ball during the day and forced the Congress to concede her wish list.

Trinamul also wants the dismissal of Communist government in West Bengal. It is also pressing for advancing the assembly elections which are due early next year. ‘The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government has to come to an end in West Bengal. There needs to be president's rule and there have to be elections because (of) the kind of killing which is taking place and the poor state of law and order machinery. There is (an) entire constitutional breakdown,’ Trinamul general secretary, Dinesh Trivedi, who is joining the cabinet, told CNN-IBN TV channel.

The Congress has sealed its ‘berth pact with NCP. Sharad Pawar will retain agriculture. So will his deputy Praful Patel his civil aviation ministry.

The Congress is keeping all the biggies – finance (Pranab Mukherjee), Home (Chidambaram), defence (AK Antony), Human Resource Development (Kapil Sibal) Commerce (either Kamalnath or Jairam Ramesh), external affairs (SM Krishna, Salman Khurshid or Kamalnath) Ghulam Nabi Azad (information and parliamentary affairs. )

-Asian Tribune-