The Congress-DMK stalemate ended on Tuesday with the Tamil Nadu party agreeing to allot the grand old party 63 assembly seats in the upcoming polls in the state. On Monday, DMK's six union ministers had arrived in Delhi with resignation letters after DMK had unilaterally announced withdrawal of its support to the UPA government at the centre on Saturday.

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee had attempted a reconciliation, setting off with a round of parleys with Dayanidhi Maran followed by discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. After Gandhi's go-ahead for a relook at the issue, Mukherjee had had sought time from the mercurial UPA ally for resolving the issue.

An obliging Karunanidhi asked the DMK ministers to defer the submission of resignations for a day.

Gandhi had also received Karunanidhi's son and union chemical and fertilisers minister Alagiri and Maran late in the evening on Monday. The DMK leaders had carried a message from Karunanidhi to the Congress chief.

Late in the afternoon on Tuesday news of DMK's arrangement with Congress came in, ending the three day political stalemate.

Political analysts believe that the DMK, known for its brinkmanship, staged the political drama, to wrangle assurances from the Congress that the CBI will not question DMK MP K Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter, in relation to the JPC scam.

Earlier report:

Alliance stalemate continues as Sonia-Alagiri parleys fail

Talks between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and DMK leaders M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran late on Monday night appeared to have made no headway in securing a breakthrough in the stalemate on seat-sharing between the two parties for Tamil Nadu assembly polls though DMK put on hold its decision to pull out of UPA government.

On a day of hectic developments, DMK appeared to have pulled itself back from the brink when it acceded to Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's appeal for a day to give negotiations a chance.

Late in the evening, Alagiri, son of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, and Maran drove to Gandhi's residence at 10, Janpath, and had a nearly 40-minute meeting.

Emerging from the meeting, neither Alagiri nor Maran spoke to the waiting mediapersons.

However, sources said the talks between the two parties were stuck on the number of seats Congress would get and the choice of its constituencies.

The sources said DMK was ready to allow Congress to contest all the 48 seats it had done in the previous elections but the choice of the additional 13 seats it will give to Congress will be decided by DMK. Congress had scaled up its demand to 63 seats.

The sources said there will be another meeting tomorrow between the DMK leaders and probably Pranab Mukherjee.

However, Congress sources said the issue could be sorted out in a day or two.

Earlier, in the day DMK put on hold the resignation of its six ministers from the UPA government after Mukherjee telephoned Karunanidhi twice and urged him not to pull out his ministers from the cabinet and sought a day's time to resolve the problems.

"Pranab Mukherjee called our president M Karunanidhi twice during the day. The Congress has asked for a day's time. So, the withdrawal of ministers from the government has been put on hold till tomorrow," deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu and DMK treasurer M K Stalin told reporters in Chennai.

Asked when the issue will be resolved, Stalin said "they have asked for a day."

DMK MP Kanimozhi said the talks between her party and the Congress were on still and that a "clear picture" will emerge only tomorrow.

The turn of events took place after Mukherjee held a series of meeting first with DMK minister Dayanidhi Maran followed by discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, Congress in-charge of party affairs in Tamil Nadu Ghulam Nabi Azad and home minister P Chidambaram were present during the discussions between Maran and Mukherjee.

Shortly before the six ministers, including Maran and M K Alagiri, were to meet prime minister Manmohan Singh and handover their resignation in the evening, Chidambaram met Mukherjee for a second time.

The union finance minister then called Karunanidhi seeking a day's time to come back with Congress' position on the seat-sharing issue.

Sources said that DMK made it clear that the offer of 60 seats to Congress was final and that the choice of constituencies could be negotiated.

Late last night, Mukherjee called DMK Parliamentary party leader T R Baalu and asked him to convey to Karunanidhi not to withdraw the ministers from the government. Baalu told reporters during the day that there was no question of reconsidering the withdrawal decision.

Notwithstanding the call, the six ministers left Chennai as scheduled in the morning for Delhi to meet the prime minister and tender their resignation.

The appointment with the prime minister was rescheduled from morning to evening and was finally called off in the evening against the backdrop of hectic talks between the two sides.