Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KS Alagiri and Congress legislature party leader KR Ramasamy emerged from the discussion with the DMK team and told media persons that the talks progressed smoothly and victoriously. On the finalised numbers, he said the deal would be sealed in a day or two. DMK was learnt to have stood its ground around 20 seats during Tuesday’s talks, while Congress reduced its demand to around 30 seats. 

DMK sources privy to the talks confirmed that the party high command was adamant on the 20 seat offer and only a few Congress members were pushing for 40 seats, while most of the congress leaders in the State were willing to settle for less than 30. Refusing to accept that the talks were getting delayed, Alagiri said, “There is no delay. Talks are going on. Consensus has been largely reached. We will finalise it tomorrow or the day after. There is no third round. Everything has been spoken.” 

Asked about the inability to reach consensus after the second round of negotiation, Alagiri wondered what did Union Home Minister Amit shah achieve after speaking with AIADMK leaders, and clarified that high-level Congress leaders would come and they would finalise the numbers themselves with the DMK. He also added that they (DMK) have applicants’ interviews too and they too should talk to their leaders, like we do with ours. On reports suggesting that DMK was planning to contest in 180 seats on its own, the he said, “We don’t know how many seats the party is contesting. They are very friendly. A party will decide only the seats it wants to contest. We are only concerned about the seats we contest.” A senior Congress leader, who confirmed the standoff, said, “We should only explore going it alone if the allotment is too low.”