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Pawar's dissent hits talks with AIADMK

The talks on the question of alliance between All India Anna DMK chief J Jayalalitha and senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar, scheduled to be held in Madras today, have been cancelled following developments in the Congress in the wake of the open letter by three CWC members, including Pawar, to party president Sonia Gandhi on her foreign origin.

Pawar, who has an excellent rapport with Jayalalitha, had held preliminary level talks with Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence in Madras on May 12. He had told reporters that the two parties hoped to "work together" in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

It is not clear who will represent the Congress in its future talks with the AIADMK.

Incidentally, Gandhi's foreign origin, which Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar had raised in their letter, was first aired by Jayalalitha herself in March 1998 itself.

However, she had not raised the issue since then and the two leaders - Sonia Gandhi and Jayalalitha -- appeared to have decided to forget the past, judging by their joint effort to unseat the Vajpayee government.

UNI

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