Cong to resume dialogue with Jaya today

CHENNAI, JULY 13: Senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and A K Antony are scheduled to resume their next round of talks with AIADMK gen...

CHENNAI, JULY 13: Senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and A K Antony are scheduled to resume their next round of talks with AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha tomorrow.

Described as the crucial and final round of talks, the dialogue is expected to lead to an alliance with the AIADMK and the formation of a front including Left parties.

As Jayalalitha has already held detailed discussions with leaders of the CPI, CPM, IUML and INL, the seat sharing modality can be decided tomorrow though the constituencies from which the Congress, AIADMK and others will contest have not yet been identified.

According to sources, the TNCC leadership, which awaits the finalisation of the number of seats for the Congress, will form an election committee to choose the constituencies and candidates. The whole exercise will be over before July 25, it is learnt.

Meanwhile, TMC leader G K Moopanar who held two rounds of discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the possibility of arriving at an electoral understanding within the framework of a broad secular front, has decided to hold a strategy session at Madurai on July 15.

The political affairs committee of the party, which met this morning at Satyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai, was believed to have discussed all the options available to the TMC to join the poll fray. The strategy of the TMC is likely to be unveiled at the Madurai public meeting on July 15, while celebrating the birth anniversary of Kamaraj.