Tamil Nadu CM Stalin meets Sonia Gandhi, Rahul in Delhi

Stalin recalled that the DMK's ties with the Congress dated back to the days of his father late M Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin on Friday met Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi, and party MP Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, for the first time after his party’s emphatic win in the April 6 assembly elections.

Stalin, who was in the national capital to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek assistance for the state’s development, called on Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence on Friday morning. Durga Stalin, the Chief Minister’s wife, also accompanied him for the meeting with the Congress President who was joined by her and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi.

Stalin presented a copy of "Journey of a Civilisation - Indus to Vaigai" by R Balakrishnan, a retired civil servant, and a shawl to Sonia Gandhi during the meeting. DMK leaders said the meeting was a “courtesy call” as this is the first time Stalin came to Delhi as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

“Our leader Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) would always meet Sonia Gandhi during his visits to Delhi. His son just followed the tradition of his father, and this visit was special owing to the DMK’s win in assembly elections after a decade. They exchanged greetings and it was a very pleasant meeting,” a DMK leader said.

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Posting pictures of the meeting on his verified Twitter page, Rahul Gandhi said the Congress will “keep working” with the DMK to build a strong and prosperous state for the “Tamil people.”

Stalin also tweeted pictures of the meeting and said the relationship between Congress and DMK dates back to the days of his father Karunanidhi. The DMK and Congress are allies and have fought all elections, except the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, together since 2004.

The book presented to the Congress President became a topic of debate on social media with many commenting it was a “good choice.” The new Chief Minister had presented a book on Tamil as the classical language to Modi on Thursday.

According to publishers, the “Journey of a Civilisation - Indus to Vaigai" seeks to establish common grounds and connecting threads that link the riddles of Indology, namely the authorship and language of the Indus Valley Civilization and the origins of Dravidian language speaking people in general and Old Tamil traditions in particular.