On Monday, even as it became clear that actor C Joseph Vijay’s party, Tamil Nadu Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) would become the single largest party in Tamil Nadu, some Congress leaders were sporting a ‘we told you so’ look.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has confirmed with at least three key party functionaries that in the run-up to the elections, the Congress seriously considered ditching its old ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and going with Vijay. The party still sees an opportunity to partner with the startup. He added: “I think that if he does not achieve a majority, we will continue to support him. But yes, we could have shared power with him,” said one congressional leader who requested to remain anonymous.
Vijay’s TVK party won 107 seats with a vote share of 35%. Congress leaders said they would like to support TVK but it was not clear whether Vijay would lean towards them. A TVK spokesperson said: “We are the single largest party, so the governor will invite us to form the government. When we are asked to show our numbers on the floor of the house, we will decide whose support we will accept.”
Perhaps because the Congress explored options ahead of the elections, the two-decade-old alliance between it and the DMK saw its fair share of friction during the election campaign. There were no joint rallies or appearances involving Prime Minister MK Stalin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Even after the results, Gandhi posted a message only congratulating Vijay and did not say a single word about his allies, the DMK or Stalin.
“It is true that TVK was in touch with us till the last minute and offered us 75 seats,” a second Congress leader and MP said, adding: “This was an issue that divided the party and in the end, it was a collective decision to stay with the DMK.”
A second MP said that Vijay’s line of communication was through Girish Chodankar, the party’s general secretary rather than senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi or Mallikarjun Kharge. Neither representative wanted to reveal his identity.
The DMK agreed to give Congress 28 seats to contest. Congress won five of these.
“Our leader said in a public meeting that it was the TNCC president who influenced the DMK not to enter into an alliance with us,” TVK said when asked about his party’s alliance offer.
It is easy to see why a section of the party preferred to get rid of the older ally. The DMK (and also the AIADMK) had always contested as part of a coalition, but insisted on forming governments on their own. The Congress was also attracted by its internal polls which clearly indicated that Vijay would get a significant share of votes.
However, in the end, the high command preferred to stay with Prime Minister MK Stalin. “The logic was simple – we had to support Stalin’s ideology. If Rahul Gandhi was attacking the BJP at the Centre, then it was Stalin who adopted that ideology in the state,” the senior Congress leader said.
The party felt that Vijay, with his apolitical worldview, did not conform to their ideas. It turned out to be a huge miscalculation. They did not take into account the extent of voters’ anger against the establishment.
With the people of Tamil Nadu rejecting established Dravidian parties like the DMK and AIADMK, choosing instead to invest their hope in the new entrant, the Congress will once again have to discover how it miscalculated – again!
