EYE ON POWER PIE

Sometime in May this year, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai spoke the unspeakable: Power sharing in Tamil Nadu. Lamenting that Congress has "wasted 57 years" (since it lost power to DMK in 1967), he told cadres that the party has to recapture power. Before DMK frowned at the ‘junior ally', party senior E V K S Elangovan stepped in to defuse the situation, saying alliance is more important than power.
Just when Congress seems to have toned down its murmur, another prominent ally, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi president Thol Thirumavalavan, has started a debate on power sharing.Whether he made the demand to stir the dalit sentiments or consolidate his ‘oppressed class' vote bank that actor Vijay may be targeting, Thirumavalavan has been more strident than Selvaperunthagai.
The assembly election is more than a year-and-a-half away, so coalition may not be a subject of political discussion now. To make it a pre-condition for the alliance to continue in 2026, Congress and VCK will have to muster more courage and political strategies beyond posturing. The first challenge for Congress would be within the organisation, given Stalin's cordial relationship with Rahul Gandhi and the stance of seniors such as Elangovan who are content with the status quo. Their refrain: The priority is to defeat BJP.
"We must accept that the Congress banks on DMK's cadre strength," says Elangovan. "DMK is the bigger ally, and we are in the assembly due to their efforts. We should ask ourselves, are we as powerful as in the 1960s (under stalwarts like K Kamaraj)? No, we aren't." Former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri says the party needs to be developed, but not at the cost of disturbing the alliance. "Even when DMK ran a minority govt from 2006 to 2011, Congress did not demand a share in govt."
In 2010, P Chidambaram had openly called for a coalition govt. Now, his son and Congress MP Karti Chidambaram is echoing the sentiment. "If there is no mutual benefit, why should the alliance continue? Congress needs DMK, and in the same way, DMK needs its allies. I am not talking about Congress alone. All parties add value to the alliance," says Karti. Interestingly, Selvaperunthagai has toned down the rhetoric, saying the Congress leadership in Delhi will decide on the alliance. "Our alliance is for ideologies such as secular India and to drive away the communal govt led by BJP," he says.
For now, the other allies are in no mood to offend DMK. Leaders of MDMK, CPM and CPI maintain that their priority is to keep communal forces at bay, protect social justice and fight for more state autonomy. "This is not the right time to seek a share in power,'' says MDMK headquarters secretary Durai Vaiko. MDMK was the first among the members of Makkal Nala Kootani that joined the DMK front in 2016, soon after their failed electoral experiment for a third front. "We do have differences in the alliance. But what binds us is our goal to keep divisive politics away from Tamil Nadu."
CPI state secretary R Mutharasan says a long-time alliance in Tamil Nadu was about seat-sharing and not power sharing. "There is no need to change that arrangement now,'' he says.
"We will not place such a demand for the 2026 poll." CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan says the objective of their alliance was not to form a coalition govt but to defeat BJP. "BJP is attempting to break parties or create confusion in alliances. So, fighting BJP is paramount. Raising the issue of power sharing at an inappropriate time doesn't augur well."
VCK deputy general secretary Aadhav Arjuna rekindled the debate. "What's wrong in Thirumavalavan with 40 years of political experience becoming deputy chief minister when people who were acting in movies till four years ago have the same aspiration?" Arjuna said, taking a dig at Udhayanidhi Stalin's rumoured ascension. DMK MP A Raja said Arjuna's comment is "against alliance dharma and political ethics", something he hoped Thirumavalavan would not endorse.
VCK, too, doesn't seem to be making the
demand in unison. Its MP, D Ravikumar, criticised Arjuna for raking up the demand,
calling his remarks that DMK cannot win seats in northern Tamil Nadu without the support of VCK "politically immature". On the day Arjuna's interview demanding a share in power was aired, Ravikumar tweeted a photo of Thirumavalavan with chief minister M K Stalin, with a message urging secular forces to be cautious. "Splitting their opposition votes is one of the strategies of our ideological rivals,'' he tweeted. "Our priority for the 2026 assembly elections should be to prevent BJP from taking root in TN."
While Stalin has remained silent on the matter, DMK spokesman T K S Elangovan tried to settle the issue saying power sharing would be decided by the party high command at the time of elections. That's buying time.
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