Chennai: Congress leaders mounted pressure on DMK to constitute a panel to hold seat sharing talks ‘immediately,’ stating the delay on the part of DMK in constituting the panel was ‘saddening.‘ Congress leaders, who held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday in New Delhi, appeared to toughen their stand. They said the delay in seat-sharing talks could affect ground level preparations for the assembly elections. “It has been more than 70 days since AICC president formed a committee comprising five members and it is more than two months since the committee called on chief minister M K Stalin on Dec 3,” Girish Chodankar, head of the five-member committee told reporters after the meeting in New Delhi. “We are waiting with hope against hope that they will start the negotiation,” Chodankar said. Chodankar said the absence of a formal coordination mechanism was ‘saddening’ and it had caused concern among party cadres and leaders. “There is no negotiation committee yet, no coordination, and alliance talks have not started. Our cadres keep asking why there is no progress. It may appear as though we are delaying matters, but that is not the case. We have met the CM and followed it up repeatedly, but there has been no development,” he said.Chodankar said elections were approaching fast and parties needed sufficient time to prepare. “We are not blaming anyone. We are only stating the fact that we have been waiting for 70 days and do not know the reason for the delay,” he said. TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai echoed the concern, urging Stalin to constitute the panel immediately. “Our request to CM is to form the panel immediately. Last-minute seat allocation and election processes do not work well,” he said stating the delayed preparations in Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections did not yield results. He said the message would be conveyed to Stalin directly on Wednesday.
