Wednesday, February 8 2006 15:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: In a bid to end speculation that some constituents of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance would jump to the AIADMK front, DPA leaders today (Feb 8,2006) decided to continue their alliance for the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and to complete the tough seat sharing exercise within two weeks.

Final seat sharing arrangements between DPA constituents would be announced at the three day DMK state-level conference at Tiruchirapalli on March 3, alliance leader M Karunanidhi told reporters here after a meeting of the DPA.

Emerging out of the meeting, MDMK Chief Vaiko, who is now the centre of attention following reports that his party might go with AIADMK, told reporters that the meeting went on well.

Refusing to divulge details, he said Karunanidhi would announce the 'good news' later.

Congress legislature party leader S R Balasubramaniam, who represented the party at the meeting, said the meeting went on smoothly.

Karunanidhi said that seat sharing talks would be completed within the next fortnight. All party leaders had been told to submit a list of constituencies and number of seats they wished to contest before February 15. He would talk to them and arrive at a settlement.

A week after the lists were submitted, he and the committee appointed by the DMK for concluding the seat sharing arrangements would talk to these parties and arrive at a settlement, Karunanidhi said.

Though the constituencies would be identified and decided during the talks, it would not be announced before the poll notification by the Election Commission, Karunanidhi said.

He said the talks today were held in a very cordial atmosphere.

Karunanidhi expressed the hope that the seat sharing arrangements would be conducted in a smooth manner and that there would not be any hitch in arriving at a decision.

Earlier, setting the tone for the meeting, Karunanidhi appealed to the leaders not adopt a 'rigid' stance during the seat sharing talks.

All parties, including the DMK, should 'sacrifice' for the victory of the DPA during the polls, he said.

Pointing out that since the AIADMK, during the 2001 assembly polls, in alliance with the Congress, TMC, PMK, Left parties and the Indian Union Muslim league, bagged 132 of the 140 seats it contested, he said the time had now come to ponder over how many seats the DMK should contest.

He also reminded the leaders that MDMK had then contestedthe polls on its own.