Chennai, Jan. 31: DMK president M. Karunanidhi today announced that 10 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu have been allotted to the Congress.

Of the seats to be given to the Congress, seven have been identified, the former chief minister said at a news conference late this evening after two days of hard bargaining between the DMK and the Congress on sharing of seats for the general elections.

The Congress would thus put up candidates for the Mayiladuthurai, Sivaganga, Gobichettipalayam, Nilgiris, Palani, Dindigul and Rasipuram (reserved) seats.

Party general secretary Kamal Nath, however, did not turn up in the evening to cement the deal.

Karunanidhi also announced that seat-sharing arrangements had been reached with two other parties in the state. The DMK chief said he had initialled an agreement with CPM state secretary . Varadarajan, under which the Marxists would contest the Madurai and Nagercoil seats.

A short while later, MDMK presidium chairman L. Ganesan walked into Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters, to sign a seat-sharing pact with Karunanidhi’s party. The MDMK will contest from Sivakasi (now held by jailed MDMK leader Vaiko), Tiruchirapalli, Vandavasi and Pollachi, Karunanidhi told the assembled reporters.

Earlier this afternoon, after more than an hour’s discussion with top DMK leaders, Kamal Nath had said that the talks on the number of seats and identification of constituencies had almost been concluded.

Nath’s talks followed discussions between the state Congress election committee and the DMK’s poll panel.

Sections of Congress members are already sore that some traditional party seats like Arakkonam and Vellore have been given away to the PMK and the Indian Union Muslim League, even as the fate of Pondicherry hangs in balance.

The Congress general secretary was optimistic of clinching a final agreement with the DMK this evening and said they would be back for talks at the DMK’s headquarters at 5.30 pm. However, none of the Congress leaders turned up, adding to the suspense.

Nath had in the afternoon dubbed the latest pre-poll survey by a news maga- zine “completely disagreeable” and called it “propaganda” allegedly on the BJP’s behalf.

The Congress leader said: “The problem is that this time all the seats are winnable (because of the formidable alliance the DMK had sewn up, including the PMK, MDMK, Muslim League and the Left Parties). We want to contest in those places where we are far more sure of winning.” However, it is important for the parties to complement each other’s strengths so that “we win all the seats” he added.