DMK snaps alliance with Cong in TN, opts out of UPA

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Saturday withdrew from the United Progressive Alliance and broke off its alliance in Tamil Nadu after day-long confabulations within the party. Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi was huddled with deputy chief minister MK Stalin, union chemicalsand fertilizers minister MK Alagiri, union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran, and other senior party colleagues at the DMK headquarters for the better part of the day and in the evening a high-level party meeting lasting about one and half hours decided to “free itself from the UPA” and break off its alliance with the Congress in Tamil Nadu.

Karunanidhi briefed the party leaders of all the developments that led to this decision  and said that with more seats available for the DMK to contest, it would be possible to win majority on our own, a senior DMK minister said.
The DMK would give issue-based support to the Manmohan Singh government, of which it has been a part since 2004, the DMK said in a resolution adopted at the high level meeting.
Announcing the decision, the DMK said “since the Congress seemed not interested in continuing with the alliance as is clear by its ever changing demands, we are breaking off the alliance in Tamil Nadu.”
The decision was welcomed by slogan shouting cadres who said “dump the Congress, we will win on our own”. The decision was also unanimous as leaders at the meeting felt that after so much tension, the cadres of the two parties may not jell on the ground. A senior minister of the DMK said “with Congress out of the way, by contesting more seats on our own, we can win a majority on our own.”
The chief minister had termed the Congress demand for 63 seats, after the DMK agreed to part with 60, and also insisting on the constituencies of its choice was unrealistic as well as unfair and saw in this a Congress unwillingness to continue with the alliance.
In the last assembly elections in 2006, the DMK and Congress fought in alliance under the DMK leadership. The Congress was allotted 48 seats and it won 34 and this time around, after the 2G scam broke out, the Congress plied on the pressure seeking initially 80 to 90 seats.
Three rounds of seat sharing agreements, the last between AICC Tamil Nadu incharge Ghulam Nabi Azad and chief minister Karunanidhi, at the end of which it seemed an agreement was on the cards with the Congress accepting 60 seats. However, the Congress suddenly scaled up its demand to 63 seats and also insisted on the choice of constituencies, which for the DMK chief upset and angry.
During the course of the day, the cadres at the DMK headquarters were waiting for a word from their leadership on snapping ties. And when the announcement was made at around 7.45 p.m., it was greeted with wild cheers and slogan shouting by the cadres.
The DMK sources said that all its ministers would go to Delhi and submit their resignations. All the DMK representatives in the cabinet and council of ministers would go to Delhi and resign from the union government.
"With each passing day it became apparent that the Congress did not want the alliance, which is why it kept changing its demands," the DMK resolution announcing the withdrawal from the UPA and snapping its alliance with Congress in Tamil Nadu.