Congress general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik along with TNCC met DMK chief M Karunanidhi and other party leaders on Friday.
Sources told The New Indian Express, Congress had asked for 63 seats but DMK is only willing to offer about 25 to 30 seats in the coming elections because of the split in Congress.
Congress reminded DMK of its promise of giving more seats to DMK. In response to it, DMK claimed that seats had to be allocated to other parties in the alliance.
DMK sources say that Congress would have to settle for about 30-33 seats. DMK has already allocated five seats each to IUML and MMK, the other parties in the alliance.
DMK seems to think that Congress is a diminished party in the state after GK Vasan began the Tamil Maanila Congress.
DMK Treasurer MK Stalin said the talks went smoothly. "We gave them options and they said they would take it to their leadership and come back."
Talking to the reporters on Friday, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that they met to discuss the election strategy. “We wanted to find out as to how many other groups are joining and how many have already joined,” he said.
Ghulam Nabi added that they have given their required number of seats to DMK. He said, “discuss among ourselves, with our leadership, the PCC chief and other leaders” and that seat-sharing will be decided in subsequent talks.
According to Deccan Chronicle, sources told Congress is demanding above 50 seats as it is the only major ally of DMK and there is a large number of seats to be shared after DMDK leader Vijayakanth has joined the PWA alliance.
Congress won only five out of the 63 seats in 2011 elections and its polling percentage in 2014 parliamentary elections was just above four percent.
However, Congress and DMK both require each other for the elections as DMK has only Congress as the major alliance party and Congress will be requiring DMK for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.