New Delhi: With DMK leader K Kanimozhi meeting senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, talks of an alliance between the two parties and seat sharing for Tamil Nadu have gathered pace, sources said.
Kanimozhi, a Lok Sabha MP, met Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath, the residence of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday for nearly an hour.
Speaking to the media in Tamil Nadu on Friday, Kanimozhi said that alliance talks with the Congress were progressing smoothly and that Chief Minister and DMK chief M K Stalin would make an announcement once all discussions were concluded. Tamil Nadu Congress chief K Selvaperunthagai also denied any rift in Congress-DMK ties on Friday, adding that the two parties would begin seat-sharing talks within a week.
He further said that his party would get the expected number of seats during discussions with the ruling DMK. “We are not exerting pressure on our ally. We will ask and get what we want and the DMK will give (us),” Selvaperunthagai told the media. Congress sources said the party would not align with any other party in the upcoming Assembly polls.
A senior party leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the grand old party is known to be an idealistic, principle-driven organisation.
This, he said, was visible during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which he kicked off from Kanyakumari on September 7, 2023.
The party leader said it was due to Rahul Gandhi’s pitch of spreading love and fighting hatred that people connected with him in large numbers during the Yatra.
He underlined that it was the effect of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that helped the Congress win nine seats in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The party leader also emphasised that the Congress is not seen as an opportunistic or alliance-hopping party in the southern state, which has earned it the trust of the people.
“Thus, chances of going with actor-turned-politician Vijay’s TVK are very low, as it would signal an opportunistic move to the people,” he explained.
It is worth mentioning that the Congress had an alliance with the AIADMK in the state from 1984 till 1995 and again in 1999. However, since 2004, the Congress has been a strong and trusted alliance partner of the DMK in Tamil Nadu.
The party leader also highlighted how the DMK prepares for elections.
Recalling an incident, he said that when he once visited a DMK minister at his residence and noticed several documents in the form of OMR sheets, he asked what they were meant for.
According to the Congress leader, the DMK minister explained that these were survey forms detailing which schemes by which parties had worked in the past and which initiatives had turned out to be successful.
“Thus, we take feedback from the public on what kind of schemes they like and what we need to bring in to understand voting patterns,” the Congress leader explained, elaborating on the DMK’s working style.
With the party set to begin seat-sharing discussions with the DMK within a week, the leader asserted that he was hopeful both parties would finalise the formula soon.
He also blamed the state leadership for not driving a hard bargain with the DMK in recent years, adding that the central leadership should not be held responsible, as it merely went by the state leadership’s decisions and backed them.
The party leader said the Congress this time is looking for a respectable number of seats in the southern state, and the numbers would be revealed once the seat-sharing deal with the DMK is finalised.
