Congress MP Manickam Tagore takes swipe at DMK, asks how party with less voter share heads alliance in Puducherry

Manickam Tagore claimed the Congress in the UT commanded over 26 per cent of the votes and that it deserved recognition for its performance.

Chennai: Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who has been demanding a share in power with the DMK in Tamil Nadu, has wondered how the party's Puducherry unit with higher vote share compared to the Dravidian major could not lead the alliance in the Union Territory.

He claimed the Congress in the UT commanded over 26 per cent of the votes and that it deserved recognition for its performance.

His reaction comes close on the heels of the DMK election in-charge for Puducherry and Lok Sabha MP S Jagathrakshakan's visit there earlier this week, and him skipping meeting the Congress leaders there.

"Will the party with 8 per cent of the votes in the alliance lead the combine or the party with 26 per cent votes lead? Why should the Congress party be spoken in a disparaging manner in the alliance? It will not be good if this continues," Tagore, the Virudhunagar MP, said in a post on the social media platform 'X' on February 6.

Assembly elections in Puducherry, along with Tamil Nadu, are likely in April. The AINRC-led NDA coalition government is running the government there.

The Congress had contested 14 seats in the 2021 Assembly election but won two while the DMK contested from 13 and emerged victorious in 6 out of the 30 constituencies the combine had contested.

The grand old party was not included in the initial talks with the DMK, a source said. Later, speaking to reporters Jagathrakshakan said the final decision on alliance and seat-sharing would be taken by the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin.