DMK chief M Karunanidhi made up his mind to pull out support to the UPA government and withdraw his ministers after three top Union ministers — AK Antony, P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad — spent over two hours with him on Monday. DMK sources said Karunanidhi was “miffled” with the message they had brought from the Congress leadership about his demands to press for a harsh line on Sri Lanka on the war crimes alleged committed on the Tamils in the island.

Karunanidhi apparently had a word with his son and party treasurer, MK Stalin, and other senior party leaders. Union minister MK Alagiri was consulted and he favoured the decision to withdraw support immediately.

The three Union ministers too “realised” that their mission had failed as they left Karunanidhi’s CIT colony residence in Chennai for airport. Antony apparently conveyed to the Congress high command that they had not been able to persuade “Kalaignar” to postpone his decision.

Karunanidhi conveyed to senior DMK leaders that he did not think that the government was in any mood to concede the DMK’s demand that New Delhi be tough on Sri Lanka.

He was upset that external affairs minister Salman Khurshid was “working” to help the Sri Lankan side in watering down the US draft before the UN human rights council.