Rajagopal P Swamy(Special Correspondent)
“A Multi-Pronged Southern Strategy Takes Shape” .
A high-stakes political realignment is rapidly brewing across South India as the Congress party aggressively seeks to solidify ties with the newly minted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, C.Joseph Vijay.
Following a tectonic shift in the state’s assembly elections that saw the Congress end its long-standing alliance with the D.M.K.to back Vijay’s T.V.K.government, national leaders are now looking ahead to the 2029 Parliamentary elections.
Their blueprint is clear:Integrate Vijay into the broader anti-BJP.National apparatus and systematically oust the BJP. from the Indian South.
The AINRC-BJP Deadlock and Rangaswamy’s Strategic Warning,This southern push gains massive momentum following a profound political fallout in neighboring Puducherry.
Reliable political circles reveal that a major turning point for the last election results was the private political advice given by veteran AINRC leader N.Rangaswamy to C.Joseph Vijay.
Rangaswamy reportedly warned Vijay about the perils of partnering with the saffron party,pointing directly to the ongoing administrative paralysis in Puducherry.
There,severe friction has exploded between the All India NR Congress (AINRC) and the BJP following the elections. The conflict,triggered by BJP leader A. Namassivayam’s unyielding demand for major portfolios in the ministry,has plunged the alliance into a bitter deadlock.
Even after two months of intense backroom negotiations and sweating, a resolution remains nowhere in sight, leaving newly sworn-in Ministers stranded and roaming without portfolios.
This stark cautionary tale of alliance friction has firmly driven Vijay away from any potential truck with the BJP, setting the stage for a coordinated effort to completely isolate and oust the BJP from South India.
The Cross-Border Drug Diplomacy:
Adding a layer of administrative cohesion to this political courtship,Kerala’s Congress Home Minister,Ramesh Chennithala,held extensive discussions with Chief Minister Vijay at the Secretariat in Chennai.
Officially,the high-profile meet centered around a unified, five-state southern crackdown on narcotics trafficking, with Chennithala briefing Vijay on the successes of Kerala’s”Operation Toofan”.
The meeting,however,quickly segued into a broader show of regional solidarity.Chennithala announced that he had officially invited Vijay to Kerala for a mega-event in August alongside Malayalam superstar Mohanlal.
Observers note that this cross-border outreach serves a dual purpose: expanding Vijay’s pan-South footprint while positioning him alongside the Congress’s ruling southern Chief Ministers,including Kerala’s leadership, Telangana’s Revanth Reddy,and Karnataka’s D.K. Shivakumar,to build an impenetrable southern wall against national BJP expansion.
Rahul Gandhi’s Direct Outreach and the ‘I.N.D.I.’ Friction:
Behind the scenes,the push is being steered directly from New Delhi.
Reports suggest that following a recent overseas trip, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha,Rahul Gandhi, immediately appointed newly elected Rajya Sabha M.P. Praveen Chakravarty as the party’s point person in Tamil Nadu.
Chakravarty,who won his parliamentary seat with the explicit backing of Vijay’s T.V.K,is widely regarded as the central bridge between the two leaderships.
During a recent internal Congress huddle,Rahul Gandhi directly communicated with Vijay, explicitly requesting his participation in the upcoming national opposition ‘I.N.D.I.’ alliance meeting next month.
However,the political reality on the ground remains complex.Vijay has maintained a firm stance, signaling that as long as the D.M.K.remains a core component of the national bloc,the T.V.K.will keep its distance, citing the D.M.K. as its primary political rival in Tamil Nadu.
Furthermore,complex regional issues such as the ongoing friction between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the Mekedatu dam project could pose a challenge to Congress’s hopes of getting Vijay to campaign for them in neighboring states.
Sparks Set to Fly in Parliament:
The ripple effects of this alliance are expected to heavily disrupt the imminent Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Because the T.V.K.currently lacks substantial independent representation in the houses, the Congress is gearing up to act as the regional party’s voice on the national stage.
Chakravarty is reportedly positioning himself as the T.V.K.’s shield in the Rajya Sabha,with murmurs indicating that the Congress is prepared to drop an aggressive political move against the D.M.K.during parliamentary debates.
Anticipating the onslaught,the D.M.K. leadership has already issued strict orders demanding the mandatory presence of its M.P.s in both houses to mount an immediate counter-offensive. Almost it’s surrendering to BJP.
As August approaches,the upcoming mega-event in Kerala and the posturing in New Delhi will make one thing undeniably clear:fueled by the lessons of the AINRC-BJP deadlock,the Congress is putting significant political capital into roping in Vijay,aiming for a total sweep to oust the BJP from the southern chessboard entirely.
