‘Demand for power sharing natural for every party’: Sachin Pilot defends Congress raising issue with DMK

Defending the Congress’ demand for a share in power with big brother DMK, the party’s Young Turk Sachin Pilot on Friday said there is nothing wrong in the party aspiring to be part of a coalition government post the 2026 assembly election in Tamil Nadu.

“Every political party wants representation and as such there is nothing wrong in the Congress workers demanding it since it would help the people of Tamil Nadu,” the Congress leader told the media in response to a question after he landed at the Chennai airport to a rousing reception.

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Maintaining that the BJP won’t be able to secure a foothold in the state in the near future, he said that the DMK government of MK Stalin had performed well and earned public approval.

While Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi is reported to have wondered why the DMK could not accede to power sharing, this is the first time that a senior Congress leader publicly endorsed the demand from local party leaders. The Congress cites the outside support extended by the Congress to the minority Karunanidhi government in 2006 to press its case.

Recently, Congress leaders, from CLP leader S Rajesh Kumar to party whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore as well as Congress Professionals Forum Chairman Praveen Chakravarty, have been batting for a coalition government. The party engaging actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) is seen as a bargaining chip with the DMK.

The DMK, on the other hand, is irritated by the rising chorus of representation in government as the state never had a coalition government under any Dravidian party – either the DMK or the AIADMK. Since it would be perceived as a weakness, the DMK has been fiercely resisting it. “The Congress has come to accept the coalition experiment when the party was not able to form a government on its own. This is not the case in Tamil Nadu. The DMK will form a government on its own,” DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan had explained earlier.

Rejecting it outright, senior DMK minister I Periasamy had made it clear that the DMK will never accept power sharing. “Well, the Congress can demand it. It is their right. But we are not for it,” he said recently.