Congress party’s trouble shooter and seasoned politician Pranab Mukherjee today revived hopes of a seat-sharing agreement between congress and the DMK which was on the verge of collapse till this afternoon.

Pranab has called up Karunanidhi on mobile and spoken for half an hour with him after which the DMK patriarch has decided to resume the talks. As a result, the decision of the DMK to pull out of the UPA Cabinet is put on hold till the result of the talks is known.  The talks will now be resumed tomorrow.

Sources however said that the DMK chief has made it clear to Pranab that Congress could not be given more than the 60 allotted seats. And Congress will also not get all the constituencies it has wanted to contest.

The relations between the DMK and congress reached a brink two days ago when the congress wanted to have 63 seats and also wanted to contest in the constituencies it has identified for the purpose, after agreeing initially to take 60 seats. This was objected to by the chief minister who said the DMK would come out of the central cabinet and his party’s ministers would quit on Monday. The decision to resign is now postponed.