Rahul Gandhi, TN Congress leaders size up DMK alliance offer

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held a discussion with a group of Congress leaders from election-bound Tamil Nadu on the recent expression of interest by DMK chief M Karunandhi to revive the alliance between the two parties for the April polls. In the meeting called "to discuss the ground situation" in TN at Gandhi’s home, many state leaders are learnt to have favoured the party aligning with the regional parties instead of repeating the ‘solo-run’ in the last LS elections.

The DMK is looking out for allies in its quest to wrest power from the Jayalalthaa-led AIDMK and Karunanidhi had stated his party’s interest in reviving ties with Congress after the two parted company over the Sri Lankan issue ahead of the 2014 LS polls. The DMK is looking at the option of forming an alliance with the Congress and Vijayakanth-led DMDK, which is reportedly looking for new pastors after a failed outing with BJP in last LS polls.

Apart from TN PCC chief Elangovan, other Congress leaders who met Gandhi on Wednesday included half-a-dozen former PCC presidents and many former Union ministers. Sources said, majority of them favoured considering DMK proposal.

They have reasons to advise the high command to take a realistic view this time: The Congress’ solo show in 2014 as desired by Team Rahul — emboldened by its ‘successful’ online membership drive of the Youth Congress — had resulted in all Congress candidates losing miserably with just two of them managing to save their deposits. The party’s overall vote percentage came down to 3.4%. Many in the state Congress fear that one more such experiment could be fatal. “Rahulji will also have a similar meeting with our counterparts from (pollbound) Puduchery before finalising our election strategy,” said a leader who attended the meeting.