Dismissing the rising chorus for power sharing from a section of the party which was an unpalatable irritant to the ruling DMK as not the official line, Congress general Secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday made it clear that the Dravidian major is an old ally and together with it the party would fight fascist forces.
“We are together. As far as the ‘different voices’ within the Congress party, I would like to categorically say that is not the party’s stand. That is their individual opinion and the party’s view,” he said in response to a question, adding that the final decision on alliance in Tamil Nadu will be taken by the party high command.
He was speaking to reporters after a protest march against the Modi government dismantling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.
When asked about DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin ruling out power share, maintaining that it is not suitable to Tamil Nadu, he said, “The Congress high command will inform in due course.”
Further, in what is seen as a gag order to party functionaries, he said, “Nobody has a right to speak in favour or against alliance partners as of now. The high command will make the final decision.”
This gag order comes in the wake of the persistent needling of the DMK by Congress Whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, who represents Virudhunagar. His latest speech in Madurai, saying that the Congress had to bear for the mistakes of the DMK, had not gone down well with the DMK leadership. Then comes All India Professional’s Congress chairman Praveen Chakravarthy, who is never tired of raking up the coalition experiment in Tamil Nadu and claiming that the people of Tamil Nadu deserved it. Chakravarty’s engagement with actor Vijay, heading the fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), had besides fueling speculation about the Congress’s ambiguity on continuing in the DMK alliance, had forced the Dravidian major to test the Congress’ patience by delaying seat-sharing talks.
Now that the Congress has fallen in line and keeping its functionaries on a tight leash, the DMK is expected to resume the much-awaited seat-sharing talks with its national ally after February 22. The DMK leadership had conveyed to the Congress that seat-sharing parleys could be taken up unless the latter wielded the stick against those taking potshots day in and day out.