The Congress high command held a high-stakes meeting at its Indira Bhawan headquarters on Saturday to map out a strategy for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, with one explosive issue dominating the agenda: the demand for power-sharing with the DMK. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi sat down with state heavyweights, including K Selvaperunthagai, P Chidambaram, and Manickam Tagore, to navigate a growing internal push to move beyond being a "supporting actor" in the state.
The timing of this meeting is significant, as the state unit has become increasingly vocal about wanting a seat at the cabinet table if the DMK-led alliance wins in March. For weeks, leaders like S. Rajeshkumar and Manickam Tagore have signalled that the party should no longer be content with just legislative support. Even the state in-charge, Girish Chodankar, recently quipped that if a party doesn't want power, it might as well call itself an NGO.
However, the DMK has already started putting up walls. Senior Minister I Periyasamy had made it clear earlier this week that Chief Minister MK Stalin has no intention of breaking the decades-old tradition of single-party rule. In fact, since 1967, neither the DMK nor the AIADMK has shared cabinet berths with allies, even when they lacked a majority— most notably during the 2006–2011 "Minority DMK" government, which the Congress supported from the outside.
The meeting also took place against a backdrop of shifting alliances. While there has been quiet chatter about the Congress potentially reaching out to actor-politician Vijay’s newly formed TVK, state leaders have officially shot down those rumours for now.
History is not exactly on the side of the Congress's present demand. The last time non-Congress members sat in a state cabinet alongside the party was back in 1952. Despite this, leaders like Sachin Pilot have stepped up to defend the aspiration, arguing that it is only natural for a political party to want a direct role in governance. Whether the DMK will budge, or if the Congress will settle for the status quo to keep the alliance intact, remains the biggest question of the campaign season.
Also read: Kerala Congress (M) rules out alliance change ahead of 2026 polls
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