Rahul Gandhi to visit TN on January 13; no political engagements amid DMK-Congress tension

Chennai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in The Nilgiris on January 13 to attend an event at a private school where he stayed for a day during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Though the Tamil Nadu assembly elections are just months away, Gandhi’s visit to the state does not have any political engagements, amid a visible strain in the ties between the Congress and DMK.

Sources told DH that Gandhi will land from New Delhi at Mysuru airport on January 13 and proceed to Gudalur in the Nilgiris district by a chopper to attend an event organized by the Morning Star Higher Secondary School. He had stayed inside the school premises during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in October 2022 when his entourage made a stop at Gudalur while on their way from Kerala to Karnataka.

“This was a commitment that he made to the school management. He is coming exclusively for the event,” a source aware of the developments told DH. The source added that Gandhi will not have any political engagements during his visit to Tamil Nadu and said had the alliance between Congress and DMK not gone under strain, the Leader of Opposition would have attended a public meeting or participated in some political event.

A senior TNCC leader told DH that the relationship between the two parties is still intact but is undergoing a strain due to a slew of developments from both sides. Gandhi’s telephonic conversation with actor-politician Vijay following the death of 41 people at his political rally in September 2025 to express his condolences triggered speculation about the Congress and TVK coming together.

With speculation doing the rounds, DMK President M K Stalin sent his family member to meet Gandhi and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge seeking a clarity on the alliance following which the Congress constituted a five-member committee under the leadership of state in charge Girish Chodankar to launch seat-sharing talks with the DMK.

Sources said the DMK leadership was upset with the Congress for asking for 70 seats and commitment on power sharing at the first meeting with Stalin on December 3. The Congress’ demand for the DMK to constitute a committee to hold seat-sharing talks with the party by December 15 also did not go down well with the Dravidian party.

“We wanted the negotiations to end by the end of December so that we can start the campaign early. But this was misunderstood by the DMK and comments by our state-level functionaries on Vijay’s party also irked the DMK,” the source said, adding that if not for the strain in ties, Gandhi would have used this visit to address a rally.

DMK leaders said the Congress could have handled the issue in a better way by waiting for the party to formally launch election work. “If we had yielded to Congress demand and constituted the seat-sharing committee, we would have been under pressure from other allies to engage them as well. Seat-sharing talks takes time, and every ally should understand this,” a DMK leader told DH.

However, leaders of both parties said the misunderstandings will be sorted out in the coming weeks and the seat-sharing deal will be clinched directly by Stalin and Gandhi.