DMK Averts A Showdown In Its Alliance

Chennai: DMK organizing secretary RS Bharati’s appeal on Tuesday to leaders and cadres to refrain from expressing their views on coalition issues and election allies could possibly save its alliance with the Congress; The Congress suffered a precipitous decline once again after Congress was whipsawed in the Lok Sabha and Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore stirred up a hornet’s nest by claiming the Madurai North Assembly constituency for his party.

While the practice of seat-sharing and constituency allocation is yet to begin in the over two-decade-old coalition, Manickam Tagore on Monday ruffled feathers in the DMK by issuing a message on

North Madurai’s MLA G Thalapathy reacted angrily and fielded Tagore and Congress MLA from Karur, Jothimani. While addressing meetings and posting on social media, he said that the Congress MPs won their seats only because of the DMK and that the two should not be given seats in the next elections, forcing the coalition into a difficult phase once again.

Congress MPs as well as TNCC chief Selvaperunthagai were exempt from Thalapathy’s violent outbursts and asked how he could make such demands to the Congress leadership. Jothimani also expressed his reservations about the DMK MLA taking on him, claiming that it was the DMK that helped him in every aspect during the elections.

As the issue snowballed into an argument that could jeopardize the friendship between workers of both sides at all levels, Bharathi stepped in to douse the flames by telling party leaders to completely avoid engaging in such discussions that would not benefit anyone. He asked party cadres and leaders to instead engage in constructive party building work.

He said that all decisions regarding the coalition will be taken by party chairman MK Stalin at the right time and called on party officials to work for the victory of the coalition in the elections.

However, after the Congress senior leaders wanted to get a share of the power and opened communication channels with TVK, the hostility between the leaders and workers of both parties did not subside and the alliance was not reconfirmed through negotiations.