Tamil Nadu AICC in-charge Girish Chodankar on Tuesday admitted that the Congress leadership’s decision to commit to the DMK alliance goes against strong popular sentiment in favor of TVK.
“Local leaders, grassroots-level leaders, were suggesting that if Rahul Gandhi, who is very popular in Tamil Nadu, joins the campaign with Vijay, it will create a huge impact and we can sweep the Tamil Nadu polls, getting around 180-190 seats,” Chodankar told PTI Videos.
According to him, due to the Indian bloc’s compulsion and the DMK being a long-time ally – the Congress’s most trusted ally – the leadership decided to continue with the DMK alliance, knowing full well that TVK would do remarkably well.
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Speaking about TVK’s victory, Chodankar said that a wave in favor of the new party swept the state as youth and women voted decisively in favor of the change, resulting in a mandate that even saw current Prime Minister MK Stalin lose his seat.
Addressing the fallout from this decision, Chodankar admitted that many party workers were left angry, with some moving towards or even contesting TVK.
“Our cadres got angry, and our voters too, and then they turned towards TVK,” he added.
But he denied allegations that the decision was influenced by a small number of individuals to pursue personal interests, stressing that the party took a brief decision after careful consideration.
Regarding the prospects of post-poll alliances, he said that he briefed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi about the current political situation.
Emphasizing that the party will respect the mandate of the people rather than trying to manipulate them, Chodankar said the AICC leadership will ultimately take a decision that is in the best interests of Tamil Nadu’s culture and ideology.
“The people’s mandate is for change. So, we also have to bow down to the mandate given by the people of Tamil Nadu. We don’t want to, you know, manipulate the mandate and go against the people’s mandate.”
Vijay’s TVK bagged an impressive 108 seats defeating the incumbent DMK led by MK Stalin which finished with just 59 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections held on April 23, according to the Election Commission of India’s final tally on Tuesday.
Congress, an ally of the DMK, managed to win five seats.
Meanwhile, AICC Secretary (in-charge of TN and Puducherry) Alva Nivedith said that the Congress high command will decide the leadership of its legislative party in Tamil Nadu.
After meeting the newly elected MLAs and state unit president, Nivedith asserted that the national leadership would also determine the future political roadmap of the party in the state.
Nivedith highlighted the recent engagement and addressed reports of communication between the top leadership and TVK founder Vijay.
“Rahul Gandhi himself tweeted yesterday that he had spoken to many national leaders and yes, Vijay is one of them,” Nivedith told PTI Videos.
