Baalu meets Sonia, seeks support for Kanimozhi

The return of the DMK to the Congress fold appeared to gain momentum today. DMK leader TR Baalu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and requested her to support the candidature of Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi.

The return of the DMK to the Congress fold appeared to gain momentum on Wednesday. DMK leader TR Baalu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and requested her to support the candidature of Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi.

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This is the perhaps the first meeting between a senior DMK leader and Gandhi after the DMK withdrew support to the UPA on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

With Vijayakanth-led DMDK also seeking the Congress' support for its nominee, Karunanidhi deputed Baalu to talk to Gandhi.

The Congress is yet to decide on the issue after indicating to both parties that they should try to reach an understanding among themselves first as both parties do not have enough MLAs on their to elect a Rajya Sabha member.

The DMK has 23 MLAs and the DMDK 29 MLAs though seven of them are rebels who back the AIADMK.

A winning candidate needs the support of 34 MLAs.

The ruling AIADMK is sure of four seats as it has 151 members in the 234-member state assembly. With chief minister J Jayalalithaa agreeing to withdraw the candidature of K Thangamuthu, who was nominated for the fifth seat, in favour of CPI's D Raja, he is likely to sail through with the required 34 votes for victory.

After Karunanidhi fielded his daughter, Vijayakanth fielded DMDK treasurer AR Elangovan as the party's candidate, making the fight inevitable for the sixth seat.