Congress considered dumping DMK to join Vijay’s TVK in Tamil Nadu elections: Report

Congress considered dropping its longtime ally, the DMK, in Tamil Nadu to join hands with Vijay’s TVK but decided against it for ideological reasons, according to Hindustan Times.

As
TVK appears set to form the government in Tamil Nadu after defeating the DMK-Congress alliance, a blame game has begun within Congress.

A Congress leader told HT that the decision to reject TVK’s offer of a tie-up was a major miscalculation.

The party leadership did not account for the extent of voters’ anger over what many now call the “arrogance of sitting legislators”, the leader said.

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A Congress MP told the newspaper that TVK had been in touch with the party until the very end, offering 75 seats in the 234-member assembly, but the leadership decided against joining hands.

As per the latest trends at 4:10 pm, Vijay’s TVK is leading on 129 seats, past the majority mark of 118.

Vijay, a Tamil film star,
launched TVK in 2024, and this was his first assembly election. With his success, he joins the likes of film personalities MG Ramachandran, J Jayalalithaa and Vijayakant, who have made it big in state politics.

Did ideology cost Congress Tamil Nadu?

A party leader told HT that the reason for not joining hands with TVK despite knowing he could do well in the election was ideological.

“The logic was simple. We had to back Stalin’s ideology. If Rahul Gandhi was taking on the BJP at the Centre, Stalin was taking on that ideology in the state,” the leader said.

The party felt that Vijay’s apolitical worldview did not align with Rahul Gandhi’s ideology, the leader said.

During the elections, the Congress-DMK bonhomie was missing, and this could be rooted in Congress exploring a potential alliance with TVK. Rahul and DMK chief MK Stalin did not hold any joint rallies during the campaign.