‘From tomorrow, none will talk about coalition govt’: DMK snubs Congress demand for power sharing

Emboldened by the Rs 5,000 deposited to 1.31 crore women beneficiaries, the ruling DMK, in a major snub to its national ally Congress’ persistence with power share, on Saturday said from tomorrow no one will talk about coalition government.

“Every political party knows the impact of the Rs 5,000 given to women and how it has changed the mindset of the people. From tomorrow onward no one will talk about power sharing or coalition government,” DMK organizing secretary RS Bharathi told reporters at the party headquarters ‘Anna Arivalayam’ in Chennai.

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“We will not respond to anyone except Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai. They are the authority to speak on this and not others. As such, there is no need to be perturbed and answer others,” was his response to a question about Congress Whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore and Congress Professionals’ chairman Praveen Chakravarthy relentlessly persisting with this.

The senior DMK leader also recalled party president MK Stalin making it clear that the idea of coalition government was not suitable to the Dravidian heartland. The Chief Minister had also said that the Congress too is very much aware of that but asserted that the alliance with the national party was strong besides his personal rapport with Rahul, whom he considers as a brother.

He also dismissed actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay, who has been targeting the DMK as an evil force and his main rival, as of no consequence. “For us he is of no consequence. We don’t even consider him as a factor,” he said. But according to analysts, the Rs 5,000 to women was a move to deflate Vijay’s rally held yesterday in Salem.

Earlier in the day, Tagore, took potshots at the DMK, reiterating the demand for power share, stating that it is essential and a legitimate right which the people will decide. Asserting that the Congress was not unrealistic in its demand for more seats, he said in a post on ‘X’, “The DMK won 133 seats out of the 173 seats it had contested in the 2021 assembly election. We are only asking for the seats you have lost.” It was his response to DMK minister Raja Kannappan, who expressed the DMK frustration at a few Congress leaders continuing to harp on the issue of coalition government. The minister had said that the DMK would contest 170 seats and emerge victorious in at least 160.

While veterans like P Chidambaram keep a studied silence, conscious of the party’s strength on the ground, it is a few in the party who have been raising the coalition chorus. Analysts point out that even Tagore had won the last Lok Sabha election by a slender margin and their harping on power-share is indeed aimed at cornering the TNCC president, who is a Dalit.