‘No meetings without politics’, TN Congress chief on VCK’s anti-liquor conference

Chennai, Sep 16 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K. Selvaperunthagai said on Monday there were ‘no meetings without politics’ while referring to the anti-liquor conference to be organised by the VCK in Kallakurichi on October 2.

VCK, a long-term ally of the DMK in the state, invited the principal opposition party AIADMK for the October 2 anti-liquor conference.

The statement of Selvaperunthagai is a clear indicator that the invitation extended by the VCK to the AIADMK has some political undercurrents to it.

It may be noted that in Tamil Nadu, there is no visible bonhomie between the ruling and the opposition parties. Hence the invitation extended by the VCK founder leader and Member of Parliament, Thol Thirumavalavan surprised many with theories in place that the VCK was in the process of jumping the fence and joining the AIADMK-led front.

After the exit of the BJP from the AIADMK front in Tamil Nadu, there have been certain discussions between DMK allies and AIADMK which can lead to a realignment of politics.

The TN Congress president in his statement to the media on Monday said that the party was yet to receive an invitation from the VCK for the Gandhi Jayanti Day anti-liquor meeting at Kallakurichi.

K.Selvaperunthagai, however, said that despite some political disagreements, the INDIA bloc was intact in the state and that there was no discord between the partners.

It may be noted that there have been strong demands from the Congress office-bearers in Tamil Nadu to enter into a coalition in the state and to share power.

The Tamil Nadu Congress party was planning a total revamp of the district committees to strengthen the party at the grassroots levels ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

The state president has recently met all the district presidents of the party and has taken feedback on the grassroots situation of the party.

Sources in the Congress told IANS that the state Congress chief was pitching for a revamp of the district committees in consultation with the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

The party’s local leaders have suggested that the Congress candidates must be drawn from the local leadership and that they will oppose any ‘outsider‘ as candidates. The candidates must not be as suggested by either the AICC or TNCC but by the District Congress Committees (DCC), they contend.

There have been demands from party cadres to go for a hard bargain with the DMK for accommodating Congress legislatures in the government. It may be recalled that the DMK had shared power at the Centre in the UPA -1 and the UPA-2 with the Congress.

With VCK extending an invitation to the principal opposition party of Tamil Nadu, AIADMK and Congress state president publicly stating that no meetings will take place without any political move is an indicator that the state is heading for some political churning.

–IANS

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