The DMK reportedly decided on candidates for three berths for the party in the cabinet and four slots as ministers of state.
The deadlock over the DMK joining the United Progressive Alliance government ended on Sunday as prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi discussed the cabinet expansion expected to take place on Tuesday.
The DMK, a key UPA ally, reportedly decided on candidates for three berths for the party in the cabinet and four slots as ministers of state, including one with independent charge, PTI reported.
A Raja may get information technology and communications, DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s older son MK Azhagiri, chemicals and fertilisers, grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran, textiles, and daughter Kanimozhi, woman and child development.
TR Baalu, who was shipping minister in the previous UPA government, may be kept out in the arrangement worked out during talks Karunanidhi held with senior party leaders collectively and individually through the day. He may instead get the post of Lok Sabha deputy speaker.
“It [the stalemate] is in the process of being sorted out.
I would call it no more than a hiccup,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told PTI.
D Ram Raj adds from Chennai: The DMK refused to confirm if a deal had been worked out with the UPA. “It is mere speculation of TV channels. Maybe they have got their Congress sources. But we don’t have any such information from our party,” organising secretary Kalayanasundaram told DNA.
A source at the chief minister’s Gopalapuram residence also refused to confirm the news, saying “channels have been speculating for a week”.
National security adviser MK Narayanan was closeted with Karunanidhi twice — late on Saturday evening and again on Sunday morning. Though he is reported to have discussed Sri Lanka, as the Union government wants the president’s traditional speech to both Houses of Parliament on June 4 to delve into the issue, a source said he could have broached political affairs too, as he is close to Karunanidhi.
The DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister has been busy since he returned from New Delhi on Friday morning, apparently in a huff, as the Congress did not yield to his demands on ministerial berths and the candidates proposed by him. He has been meeting senior party politicians and family members, including son and heir apparent MK Stalin, Maran, Azhagiri, Baalu, Raja, Duraimurugan, K Ponmudi, and other senior leaders.
Karunanidhi’s contemporary and party secretary K Anbazhagan hasn’t, however, figured in the talks. Karunanidhi, according to senior ministers, was meeting party leaders individually before arriving at a decision. “If that is the case, Baalu could turn out to be the loser as he doesn’t enjoy much support within the party,” a DMK source said.
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