Saturday, March 4 2006 16:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kochi: Coalition partners of the ruling United Democratic Front in Kerala today (Mar 04 2006) held discussions on whether or not to have an electoral tie-up with K Karunakaran's Democratic Indira Congress, but left it to the Congress to take a final decision.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, UDF convener P P Thankachan said the DIC-K issue will be finally settled after consulting the Congress high command.

"Our partners have assigned Congress to take a final decision on the matter since the Karunakaran-led party had walked out of the Congress," he said.

Despite repeated queries on whether front partners were keen to have a tie-up with Karunakaran's party, Thankachan declined to reveal anything.

Besides the DIC-K issue, discussions on seat sharing were also held, he said.

"We hope the issue of seat sharing between the front partners would be very smooth" and would be completed before the next UDF meeting on Mar 10 at Thiruvananthapuran, he said.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Union Minister Vayalar Ravi, CWC member A K Antony, KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala, UDF Convener P P Thankachan and leaders of front constituents - P K Kunhalikutty (IUML), Revenue Minister, K M Mani (KC-M), among others.