While all the focus is on actor-politician Vijay, another sub-plot seems to be silently unfolding in Tamil Nadu – the growing hostility between former allies DMK and Congress. From DMK and Congress workers clashing in the streets to accusing each other of “betrayal” – the bad blood between the parties is now out in the open. The trigger was the Congress ditching the DMK, its ally for two decades, to support Vijay’s TVK in forming the next government.
The fast-paced developments came amid strong buzz that the DMK may ally with its arch-rival AIADMK to form the government to keep the TVK out. However, the TVK-Congress alliance eventually managed to get the magic number of 118 MLAs after the VCK (2) and the Left (4) backed the coalition. It has only widened the rift between the Congress and DMK, which once considered the party its “ideological partner”.
DMK SEEKS PARLIAMENT SEATING TWEAK
The DMK fired the first shots on Thursday, saying the “INDIA bloc is gone” and accusing the Congress of being “opportunists”. Such is the acrimony that the DMK has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking seating changes for the party’s MPs in Parliament. Usually, allies are grouped while deciding the seating arrangement in the House.
In her letter to Birla, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said the current seating arrangement with the Congress was no longer appropriate after the breakdown of the alliance.
“In view of the changed political circumstances… it may not be appropriate for our members to continue occupying the present seating arrangement,” the letter said. Karunanidhi requested that DMK members be “allotted separate seating”.
The DMK’s letter signals that the future of the INDIA bloc, formed to take on the BJP, is in doldrums. The DMK, with 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha and eight MPs in the Rajya Sabha, was the fourth-largest constituent of the INDIA bloc. The unity among the INDIA bloc was seen as the key reason behind it keeping the BJP out from securing a simple majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
CONGRESS FIRES BACK
The Congress fired back on Friday, saying rumours of the DMK uniting with its “lifelong enemy” AIADMK to stop Vijay from becoming the CM were nothing but betrayal.
“Two Dravidian parties. Lifelong enemies. Became one overnight. Not for Tamil Nadu. Not for secularism. To stop one single man, Vijay,” Congress MP Manickam Tagore tweeted.
Tagore said Congress anticipated such a move, and that is why it walked out of the DMK alliance. “Congress saw it clearly. It exited. You cannot lie down with the B-team of RSS/BJP and call yourself secular,” Tagore further said.
In another post, Tagore explained that Congress supported Vijay’s TVK to respect the people’s mandate and to keep the NDA out.
“But DMK is talking to AIADMK. With the BJP’s blessings. That’s practically NDA by another name. Should Congress have helped NDA come to power? TVK has been anti-BJP from day one. Congress stood with that,” he further said.
In an interview with ANI, Tagore went as far as to allege that the DMK had been “taken control” by the BJP.
The animosity also spilt onto the streets after DMK and Congress workers exchanged fisticuffs in Mayiladuthurai.
The incident happened when Congress workers were protesting against the Tamil Nadu Governor’s move not to invite Vijay to form the government despite TVK emerging as the single largest party.
In fact, over the past few months, the bonhomie between the Congress and the DMK was on the wane. The cracks widened over the DMK gradually reducing the number of seats allotted to the Congress in elections.
Allies for over two decades, the DMK and the Congress now seem to have a Vijay-sized rift.
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