The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, heading the seven-party Democratic Progressive Alliance, has convened a meeting of alliance party leaders in Chennai on February 8.

In a statement in Chennai, DMK president M Karunanidhi said the meeting would be held at 1000 hours and appealed to all alliance party leaders to attend the meeting without fail.

The meeting has been convened at a time when the alliance parties were exerting pressure on the DMK to begin the seat sharing exercise at the earliest.

The DMK had constitued a six-member committee headed by senior leader Arcot N Veerasamy for the purpose of holding seat sharing talks with the alliance parties. But the party supremo had said that the team would commence talks only after the Election Commission announced the notification.

Karunanidhi had expressed hope that the party would be able to complete the exercise and announce the details in its Tiruchirapalli conference, scheduled to be held on March 3, 4 and 5.

He has also appealed to the allies to remain united and ignore rumours being spread to break the DPA.