Negotiating From Unequal Ground: DMK’s Cold Response To Congress Demands

The Congress party’s long-standing desperation in Tamil Nadu—being out of power for decades despite remaining part of the ruling front—has increasingly become an irritant within the DMK-led alliance. Attempts by a section of Congress leaders to explore an alignment with actor Vijay’s TVK have not gone down well with the DMK, the senior partner. Although the party’s national leadership has firmly ruled out ditching the DMK and joining any alternative formation, not all state leaders appear convinced.

Within the state Congress, a section of leaders has begun to question whether continued subordination within the DMK-led front can ever yield a revival. Their exploratory moves towards actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) reflect less an ideological shift and more a search for political leverage in a crowded Dravidian-dominated space. These overtures, however tentative, have triggered unease within the DMK, which views any parallel channel-building by allies as a challenge to alliance discipline.

The latest flashpoint in the simmering war of words between the DMK and the Congress came from Madurai North MLA G. Thalapathi, who publicly dismissed the Congress as lacking organisational strength in Tamil Nadu. The remark drew a sharp response from Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee (TNPCC) president K. Selvaperunthagai, who urged the DMK leadership to rein in its leaders and prevent what he described as derogatory comments aimed at an alliance partner.

The exchange underscores how tactical disagreements over power-sharing and seat allocation are increasingly spilling into the public domain, exposing the alliance's fragile equilibrium. While both parties continue to emphasise unity at the leadership level, such episodes reflect a growing impatience—particularly within the Congress—over its standing in the DMK-led front, and a corresponding assertiveness from DMK leaders keen to reaffirm the hierarchy within the coalition.

The national leadership of the Congress has publicly ruled out abandoning the DMK alliance, wary of the electoral risks of isolation and the lack of a viable alternative coalition in the state. Yet this position has not fully settled the debate within the Tamil Nadu unit. Even as dissenting voices have softened their public tone, the internal assessment remains stark: the Congress fears that its current role—limited seat-sharing, and near-total dependence on the DMK’s electoral machinery—offers no clear pathway to a political breakthrough.

This divergence between the national leadership’s strategic caution and the state unit’s impatience has created an undercurrent of friction within the alliance.  Though highly unlikely to result in an immediate rupture, it adds a layer of uncertainty to ruling front.

Both the Congress and the DMK leadership have publicly dismissed reports of friction within the alliance. In private, however, leaders on both sides concede that the relationship is under strain. The tension stems less from immediate electoral disagreements and more from the Congress’s growing frustration over its marginal role within a front it has loyally supported for decades.

In recent weeks, sections of the Congress leadership have tested the waters by floating the idea of a cabinet berth should the alliance return to power. The demand was conveyed informally—through individual leaders rather than official channels—suggesting a calibrated attempt to gauge the DMK’s response without triggering an open confrontation. The DMK’s reaction, however, was swift and unambiguous.

The party fielded senior minister and deputy secretary-general E.V. Velu Periyasamy to shut down speculation on power-sharing. While acknowledging that the Congress was within its rights to raise the issue, Periyasamy made it clear that the demand was non-negotiable. “Tamil Nadu has always had single-party rule. The Chief Minister is firm,” he said, underlining the DMK’s long-standing position that coalition partners would not share executive power in the state.

The episode underscores the asymmetry within the alliance. For the Congress, the absence of a ministerial stake reinforces perceptions of political stagnation; for the DMK, conceding cabinet space risks diluting its authority and unsettling its carefully managed power structure. While neither side appears willing to precipitate a rupture, such episodes expose the limits of accommodation within the front and highlight the growing gap between public alliance unity and private unease.

The DMK leadership believes the current unrest within the alliance is largely the handiwork of one or two Congress leaders rather than a concerted organisational push. A senior DMK leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Outlook that a Congress MP and a state-level leader have been prodding the party to explore the possibility of an understanding with actor Vijay’s fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore had earlier set the tone by arguing that no party could win on its own in Tamil Nadu and that the time had come to debate coalition rule in the state. Close on the heels of that remark, party leader Praveen Chakravarthy’s meeting with Vijay added to the speculation. Chakravarthy, who heads the Congress’s working professionals’ wing, subsequently sharpened the political messaging by publicly criticising the DMK government’s fiscal management. He described Tamil Nadu as having the highest outstanding debt among all states—higher even than BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh—calling the debt levels “alarming” and pointing to high interest payments and a steep debt-to-GDP ratio.

Taken together, these moves have reinforced perceptions within the DMK that a section of the Congress is increasingly uneasy with its subordinate position in the alliance and is testing alternative political narratives. The Congress, however, has officially denied any plan to walk out of the DMK-led front.

“DMK has been closely working with the Congress party for a long time. M.K. Stalin has always supported Rahul Gandhi in his fight against the BJP. They share good camaraderie,” said DMK spokesperson Salem Dharanidharan, seeking to project unity.

Despite these public assurances, it is learnt that the DMK is unwilling to concede additional seats to the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly election. The Congress, on its part, believes it has a strong case for a larger share, citing its performance in 2021, when it was allotted 25 seats and won 18, securing 4.25 per cent of the vote. By contrast, in 2016—when the DMK-led alliance lost power—the Congress contested 41 seats but managed to win only eight.

“We have not yet started seat-sharing talks,” Manickam Tagore said. “We have a mechanism to sort out issues, and what we discuss with the DMK cannot be made public.” The Congress has since constituted a committee to initiate negotiations.

DMK sources indicate that the party is inclined to retain the broad seat-sharing template of the 2021 Secular Progressive Alliance. In the last election, the Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), CPI, CPI(M) and the MDMK (which contested on the DMK symbol) were allotted six seats each, while the Indian Union Muslim League contested three seats. As the largest ally after the DMK, the Congress expects an upward revision this time.

While Congress leaders acknowledge that the party’s central leadership remains in touch with the DMK high command, the latter continues to be non-committal—underscoring that beneath the surface display of alliance cohesion lies a negotiation marked by mistrust, asymmetry, and competing assessments of political leverage.