Chennai : As the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) scrambles to secure allies and form a government in Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has opened backchannel talks with its long-time rival. AIADMK sources confirmed that discussions have taken place, though there is no official word yet on any breakthrough.
For those unversed, the AIADMK was formed in 1972 after MG Ramachandran, or MGR, was expelled from the DMK by then-president M Karunanidhi following disputes over the party’s corruption allegations. The split set the stage for the decades-long rivalry between the two Dravidian parties which defined Tamil Nadu’s political landscape.
The alliance isn’t just limited to government formation in Tamil Nadu, the party said, stressing that it would cover future elections ranging from the local bodies to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The DMK has dubbed the Congress move an act of betrayal. The Congress, however, argues that it stands with the public mandate and has taken this step to keep the BJP out of Tamil Nadu.
The move, however, was not sudden; the groundwork for it had been laid over the past few months. While everyone was taken aback by the TVK’s resounding victory within two years of being launched, some leaders within the state Congress had sensed this “Vijay tsunami” well in advance.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore, a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi, and Praveen Chakravarty, the head of the Congress’s professional wing, had worked tirelessly behind the scenes to persuade the party to ally with the TVK, rather than with the DMK. However, instead of showing the political will to take a calculated risk, the Congress high command chose to negotiate with the DMK.
The Congress put forward a demand for around 40 Assembly seats and sought ministerial berths in the next DMK-led government. The DMK rejected their demand for a share in the government as well as the request for 15 more seats than they had received in the previous election cycle.
The Congress leadership, essentially “Team Rahul Gandhi”, was initially in no mood to yield to the DMK; however, in the eleventh hour, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and veteran leader P Chidambaram adopted a more flexible stance. The party eventually accepted 28 Assembly seats along with one Rajya Sabha seat.
The Congress and the DMK did contest the elections together, and Rahul Gandhi refrained from sharing the stage with Chief Minister MK Stalin throughout the campaign period, exposing an apparent rift between the two top leaders. On the results day, as soon as it became evident that the DMK had been ousted from power, Gandhi called Vijay to congratulate him and assured him that the Congress stood with him.
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