DMK, Congress ties sour over seat-sharing issues amid TVK alliance shift

New Delhi: The souring of relations between the MK Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress, two key constituents of the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc, started last year, when the Congress had formed a committee to initiate seat-sharing talk, in which DMK refused to partake.

Several calls went unanswered and some consultations were also unattended, said Congress sources, leading to the latter forming an alliance with Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, a party that deseated DMK from power.

While DMK leaders have been calling this a “betrayal”, and termed the Congress “backstabbers”. On the contrary, Congress leaders DH spoke to said that DMK has stopped the transfer of power to the Congress in all the years that the DMK has been in Alliance with them.

An internal committee formed by the Congress in November, headed by Girish Chodhankar, had tried meeting with the DMK several times. “Ater the Bihar elections, we wanted to initiate seat-sharing talks soon. But there was no response from DMK, they stalled us, did not attend a single meeting we asked them to come to, and eventually responded in February this year,” a senior leader who had told the leadership to ally with TVK, told DH.

Last Monday, when the results were coming in, by evening Rahul Gandhi placed a call to MK Stalin, said sources, where the exchange was brief and polite. Gandhi then spoke to Vijay, who asked for the support.

The Congress’s internal survey showed that Vijay was going to do overwhelmingly good. “In informal talks with us before the polls, TVK was willing to offer to us 75 assembly seats, 6-7 ministries as well as 50% seats in the Lok Sabha,” the leader quoted above said.

Rahul had, after this survey, showed support to Vijay after the CBI inquiry following the death of 41 fans in a stampede in his Karur rally, as well as the stalling of the releasing of his movie Jana Nayagan. DMK was not happy with the development.

In contrast, the DMK was unwilling to give the Congress a single ministry, said Congress leaders. “Whenever we are in the Opposition, the DMK is good to us, and when we are in power, they do not share any single position – even anganwadis do not have a Congress worker,” another senior leader, hailing from the state, who has vocally spoken in support of TVK said. “The local cadre-to-cadre trust and relationship had broken down”.

The DMK has historically not shared power with the Congress, but has helped the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. “In 2006, the DMK had 96 MLAs and needed 22 more to form government. The Congress had 34 MLAs and we gave support. In return they ran the state for five years without giving us a ministry, while they had cabinet ministers in the Centre,” the leader quoted in the first instance said.

Internally, Congress had differing opinions on the TVK vs DMK issue, with senior hands like party president Mallikarjun Kharge and P Chidambaram taking the DMK’s side, while party MP Manickam Tagore and leader Praveen Chakravarthy taking TVK’s side. Gandhi was leaving towards Vijay, too, but Kharge prevailed. “The local leaders and cadre was in favour of a Congress-TVK alliance, but the MPs and MLAs wanted to stay with DMK,” the leader added.