Congress Set To Use Vijay Link To Bargain With DMK

“Seat-sharing and power-sharing could not be discussed in public,” he told reporters here. “There is a party high command and the DMK has a leadership. The views of Congress functionaries will be conveyed to the high command and the state party will function according to the guidelines of the party high command.”

After Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin expressed concern about the Congress stand and hoped that the party would not slip out of the alliance, Congress MPs too have started demanding share in power and more seats for the party. The pro-Vijay faction in the Congress sees a chance to expand its base by getting more seats from the TVK.

However, those supporting the DMK alliance feel that the party would end up with fewer seats if it formed an alliance with the TVK since both the parties have no organisational structure and the Congress polled only 4.37 per cent votes when it contested alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The TNCC leader when asked about the decreasing number of seats for the Congress in the DMK alliance, said the question should be put to those responsible for the decrease of seats from 63 in the 2011 Assembly elections to 41 in the 2016 elections and then to 25 in the 2021 elections.

He said the views of Congress in-charge of Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar was misinterpreted by a few persons. He was only saying that the party would choose among 125 preferred seats in Tamil Nadu and did not say that it would contest in 125 seats. The TNCC leader could not speak about the number of seats wanted by the party in public.

Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore, perceived to be close to Mr Gandhi, too, has demanded a higher number of seats for the Congress and sharing of power. His views were strongly backed by Kanyakumari MP Vijay Vasanth who said sharing power in the state is the wish of all the leaders in Tamil Nadu. He said a decision on the issue would be taken by the Congress high command.