'I know my limits': Tamil Nadu CM Stalin as leaders urge him to lead I.N.D.I.A. bloc over Rahul Gandhi

Chennai: Rejecting suggestions from various political leaders that he was best suited to lead the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday said he “knew his limits” and will never aspire beyond that, in a subtle reaffirmation of his long-standing view that only Congress should head a political combine at the national level.

“My leader (and father M Karunanidhi) would say he knew his height. I would like to repeat the same, ‘I know my limits’. I would remain within that,” he told CNN-News18’s Town Hall meeting here. Stalin was responding to a question on whether he would assume the leadership of I.N.D.I.A. alliance as leaders like Manishankar Aiyar and Uddhav Thackeray have proposed his name.

While Stalin did not elaborate his answer, it is interpreted as the Chief Minister’s way of reaching a message to his ally Congress, that he would continue to be in state politics. The messaging was clear – the Congress will dominate politics at the national level and the DMK will be the boss in Tamil Nadu – especially as the negotiations for the April-May assembly elections between the two parties have just begun.

Stalin’s response also sends another message to the Congress that it should play the second fiddle to the DMK in Tamil Nadu as the national party drives a hard bargain. The statement came a day after Congress general secretary K C Venugopal met Stalin at his residence to iron out differences between the two parties.

It was Stalin’s call on March 1, 2023, to all political parties to float an anti-BJP front with Congress’ leadership that led to the formation of I.N.D.I.A. bloc in June the same year.

At the same event on Monday, Stalin’s son and deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi said his father might not live up to the expectations of DMK men but will walk the extra mile in accommodating alliance partners. He was asked whether DMK’s relationship with alliance partners was fine vis-à-vis the assembly polls.

Meanwhile, AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Girish Chodankar, met DMK parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and discussed the seat-sharing for his party. “The meeting (between Venugopal and Stalin) was cordial. The discussions on issues like seats for local body and Rajya Sabha went well but the discussion on seat-sharing for assembly elections remain inconclusive,” Chodankar added.

While Congress is demanding over 35 seats in the Assembly, the DMK is willing to allot 27 or 28 seats, up from 25 seats it was allotted in 2021.