The AIADMK will contest 23 seats in the coming Lok Sabha, Congress 12, CPI and CPM two each and the Indian National League one seat, according to a poll pact reached by the leaders of the all the constituents of the AIADMK-led front.

Significantly, Jayalalitha has snubbed her old friend and maverick Subramaniam Swamy by giving him no seat at all.

The contours of the front emerged after Congress emissaries Manmohan Singh and A K Antony had a 45-minute meeting with ADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha. ``The Congress and the AIADMK have agreed to work together in Tamil Nadu,'' a visibly relieved Singh told the media as he drove out of Poes Garden.

The two emissaries' last two trips to Chennai had yielded precious little as Jayalalitha wasn't willing to give more than five seats to the Congress. The Congress hadoriginally staked its claim for 25 seats under the old MGR formula and later scaled it down to 15 during the seocnd round of talks.

But with the two parties realising their mutual need, Jayalalitha and Sonia Gandhi budged from their apparent intransigence and settled for 12 seats for the Congress. ``I am satisfied,'' Singh said.

Singh also announced that the Congress and the AIADMK would jointly campaign in Tamil Nadu. In other words, Sonia and Jayalalitha will, for the first time, share the dais and address public meetings in Tamil Nadu.

Though the break-up of seats has been worked out, the constituencies haven't been decided. Sources said Jayalalitha will disclose the list of constituencies and the candidates when she visits the party headquarters on April 23.

However, Left sources say she has agreed to allot Nagapattinam for CPI and Coimbatore for the CPM. The other two seats for the Left parties are likely to be finalised over the next few days.

The AIADMK supremo is likely to allot a majorityof the seats in the northern districts for the Congress and keep most of the constituencies in the southern and western districts for herself. For two reasons: In the northern districts, primarily a region with Vanniyar concentration, the AIADMK is on a weaker footing without an alliance with the PMK which wields influence over the Vanniyar votes.

As for southern districts where the Mukkulathor community is a key electoral factor, Jayalalitha feels it will swing her way. The AIADMK will, meanwhile, field its candidates in Assembly bypolls to Nattam and Tiruvattar Assembly constituencies.