CHENNAI, January 21: The Communist Party of India-Marxist, whose general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, is given charge of resolving seat sharing glitches among the United Front partners in the north, threatens to drive the coalition Front into rough weather over the very issue in Tamil Nadu.Ironical as it seems, the CPM, along with its Left partner, the CPI, has rejected the allotment of one seat each in the DMK stronghold Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha polls and appealed to Front leaders to reconsider the allotment.The CPM state council is meeting here tomorrow to consider the crucial option of either going it alone or to have a tie-up with the Dal. The state leadership was in constant touch with the CPM high command to decide next course of action, sources said. The Front, already besieged by Samajwadi strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav's adamant stance on contesting all seats in UP, now faces a parallel in the south. DMK president M Karunanidhi is bent on the party contesting the same number of seats as it did in the 1996 elections in Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.``There will be no change,'' Karunanidhi is reported to have categorically said.The DMK leader had earlier today announced that his party would contest 18 seats leaving 20 to the TMC, leaving two seats to the Left partners, CPM and CPI. The Janata Dal, another ally, has not been accommodated either.While the CPI which was given two seats in the last elections, it has been relieved of the Sivakasi seat, the CPM which is a new entrant to the Front would be allotted the Coimbatore seat. CPM sources said they would rather leave the seat offered to their party to CPI rather than ``accept the humiliation''.In a statement, CPI state secretary R Nallakannu said if DMK was willing to give up one of its seats in favour of CPM, nothing could prevent it from persuading TMC to give up one for CPI.
