DMK Averts A Showdown In Its Alliance

Chennai: An appeal by the DMK organization secretary R S Bharati to leaders and cadre to refrain from expressing opinions on coalition issues and electoral allies on Tuesday could possibly save its alliance with the Congress, which took a nosedive once again after Congress whip in the Lok Sabha and MP from Virudhunagar, Manickam Tagore, stirred the hornet’s nest by demanding the Madurai North Assembly constituency for his party.

While the seat sharing and constituency allocation exercise in the over two decade old coalition had not yet begun, Manickam Tagore put out message on X – ignoring the diktat of his party to not discuss alliance issues in public – on Monday that the Congress should field a candidate from Madurai North in the coming Assembly elections, ruffling feathers in the DMK.

Sitting MLA of Madurai North, G Thalapathy, reacted angrily and took on Tagore and Congress MP from Karur, Jothimani. Addressing meetings and in social media posts he said that the Congress MPs had won their seats only because of the DMK and that the two of them should not be given seats in the next election, forcing the coalition to hit rough patch once again.

Congress MPs and also TNCC president Selvaperunthagai took exemption to the violent outbursts of Thalapathy and asked how he could make such demands to the Congress leadership. Jothimani, too, expressed reservation over the DMK MLA taking on her by alleging that it was the DMK that helped her during the elections in all ways.

With the issue snowballing into a controversy threatening to jeopardize the camaraderie between the workers of both the parties at all levels, Bharathi stepped in to douse the flames by telling his party leaders to totally avoid getting into such arguments that would help no one. He asked the party cadre and leaders to involve themselves in constructive party building work instead.

All decisions relating to the coalition would be taken by party president M K Stalin at the right time, he said, urging party functionaries to work for the victory of the coalition in the election.

However, the hostility that crept in between the leaders and workers of both parties when Congress honchos were demanding share in power and also opened channels of communication with the TVK, has not dissipated and the alliance has also been not reconfirmed through talks.