Is DMK-Congress Alliance on Shaky Ground?

Chennai: Accusing Praveen Chakravarthy, the controversial AICC leader who has alleged that Tamil Nadu’s debt situation was alarming, of being a supporter of the BJP, the top brass of the DMK raised the issue with TNCC president K Selvaperunthogai, who spoke angrily against his remarks and urged his party national leadership to take action against Chakravarthy.

Since many other Congress leaders like former Minister S Thirunavukkarasar, Jothimani, MP, and Sashikanth Senthil, MP, have also raised objections to Chakravarthy’s remarks like ‘TN has the highest outstanding debt of all states. In 2010, UP had more than double the debt of TN. Now TN has higher debt than UP, Some compare the present situation to that of 1996 when the party split in the State .

Hitting out at Chakravarthy's statement, Selvaperunthogai said that the AICC leader was out to create problems in the DMK-led alliance in the State, while Thirunavukarasar stressed on the need for the coalition for the Congress to form a government even at the Centre in future.

However, some Congress leaders are recommending the party high command to snap ties with the DMK and align with the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of Vijay. Earlier, Chakravarthy, who has absolutely no grassroots support even in the State Congress, created a controversy by calling on Vijay and having a long conversation with him.

It is also said that Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, who was in Chennai, met some leaders of the TVK, suggesting that a parallel channel of communication between the Congress leaders in Delhi and TVK leaders has been opened, bypassing the TNCC leaders.

But the DMK leaders have been raising their objections with the TNCC over the different developments and Selvaperunthogai has been reaffirming his party’s alliance with the DMK in the 2026 Assembly elections.

Selvaperunthogai has even said that Chakaravorthy had no connection with the Congress party and that he was misusing the name of Rahul Gandhi, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha.

However, the silence of the Congress high command over the repeated statements against the DMK government by Chakravorthy, who is the ‘chairman of the Professionals’ Congress and Data Analytics,’ has made many wonder if the Congress high command was playing a double game.

While allowing the TNCC to have a rapport with the DMK at the local level, the Congress is suspected to be toying with the idea of going along with the newly formed TVK on the basis of some advice from leaders like Chakravorthy, hoping that it would bring political dividends to the party.

Even other leaders like AICC in charge of Tamil Nadu, Girish Chodankar, have been openly expressing a desire to demand more seats for the Congress in the 2026 elections and also a share in power. A panel formed by the Congress to discuss that issue is said to have demanded 39 seats, one each in all the Lok Sabha constituencies.

While the DMK has declined to concede to the demand for power sharing and also the steep increase in the seats, party leaders have also expressed consternation over the demand. At the most they might allot an additional three seats but have totally ruled out power sharing if the alliance wins, sources in the party said, adding that the Congress was free to walk out of the alliance if it was not happy with the allocation.

But most of the local Congress leaders – unlike those like Chodankar and Chakravorthy who have no regional connections or political stakes – are in favour of continuing in the alliance as of now and do not view the TVK as an alternative ally to win the polls.