With enough indications of a possible alliance of the DMK and Congress for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik will be visiting Tamil Nadu this weekend to hold discussion with DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
“The two leaders will be in Chennai on February 13 and will be meeting M Karunanidhi,” said a Congress leader, who declined to be identified.
last year in December, Karunanidhi had said that Congress would be invited to join the alliance led by his party for coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. “We will not leave Congress when we invite parties as part of DMK alliance,” he had said. Karunanidhi’s statement had come nearly three years after snapping ties with Congress.
Congress is out of power in Tamil Nadu for nearly five decades and has generally been aligning with either of the Dravidian parties - DMK or AIADMK. Sometimes, it had contested alone too but without much success.
AICC has given signals that the decision on the issue of alliances would be taken keeping in mind the aim of checking ruling BJP in 2019 lok Sabha elections and the view of the state units on tie-ups in their areas.
Incidentally, with 18 MPs, the DMK was the second largest tally of Congress in the UPA II after Trinamool Congress which had 19 MPs. The DMK-Congress alliance swept all the 40 lok Sabha seats including the lone Puducherry seat in the 2004 elections and won 28 seats in the 2009 general elections. The combine also won the 2006 Assembly elections, though DMK could not get a majority on its own. In 2011 Assembly however DMK and Congress was out with J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK romping home with a thumping majority.