Keeping big brother DMK on tenterhooks, the Congress has renewed the demand for a share in power that has put under cold storage the seat-sharing talks for the 2026 assembly elections.
Congress Whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore has joined the chorus for a coalition government post elections. For both the dominant Dravidian parties, the ruling DMK and the principal Opposition AIADMK, power sharing is an anathema as it will be seen as a weakness. The two parties have ruled Tamil Nadu alternately and the state never had a coalition government post-independence.
“No one can win an election in Tamil Nadu without an alliance. The time has come to debate power sharing… Time for share of power not only share of seats,” said Tagore, the MP from Virudhunagar, citing a survey on vote share data of parties in Tamil Nadu. This has rekindled the conversation, betraying the Congress’ desperation to be part of the government after 1967.
“Alliance politics is the truth in Tamil Nadu,” he said, adding that the survey by IPDS, a little-known pollster, however, has not given the correct picture of the vote of Congress and other parties. According to the IPDS data, the Congress vote share is a mere 3.10 per cent while that of the DMK is 17.07 per cent and the AIADMK is 15.03 per cent. The BJP, with 2.50 per cent is closely behind the Congress, whereas the ultra-Tamil Nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of Seeman has 7.50 per cent. Interestingly the fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor Vijay has 14.20 per cent.
Only recently, Professionals’ Congress chairman Praveen Chakravarty has stirred the hornet’s nest with his comparison of Tamil Nadu’s debt burden with that of Uttar Pradesh and claiming that the former is alarming.
Reacting sharply, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan condemned Tagore’s demand for a share in power. “He is neither the TNCC president or the national president of the Congress. It is the leadership of the Congress that has to engage us. Instead of making such noises in the public domain, he should have taken this up with his party leadership,” he fumed. “It is because of people like him that the Congress is in a pitiable condition in the state. Rather than working for their party’s growth, they are hurting it. For seat sharing, the Congress national leadership has formed a committee and the members of the panel and they will hold parleys with our party leaders. He is not even a member of that panel,” he said.
Earlier too, Elangovan debunked the claim for a coalition government when Congress Legislature Party Leader S Rajesh Kumar raised the demand, saying that being part of the government is necessary for the party’s growth and to fulfil its poll pledges.