Ahead of T.N. Assembly polls, Congress MP calls for sharing of power, not just seats

Congress MP B. Manickam Tagore has amplified the demand by certain political parties, including a section of leaders from the Congress in Tamil Nadu, for the sharing of power among alliance partners in the Tamil Nadu government.

In a social media post, the Virudhunagar MP said, “Now is not just the time to discuss the sharing of seats, but also the sharing of power.”

He said this while sharing another social media post on a vote share survey report by a private organisation, which had listed the vote share of each political party in the State.

Mr. Tagore disputed the numbers mentioned in the post, claiming they did not reflect the real vote share of not just the Congress party, but also that of other parties. However, he said the social media post only indicated that no party could win the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu without the support of alliance partners.

The Congress MP’s remarks come at a time when a few political parties, such as the DMDK and Puthiya Tamilagam, have demanded the sharing of power among alliance parties.

The ruling DMK and the principal Opposition party AIADMK have openly expressed their stand against the sharing of power in the State government.

A Congress functionary said Mr. Tagore has only expressed the wishes of the Congress high command and that of the Congress cadres. “We are bored of a mere electoral alliance that is restricted to seat-sharing. We also want to share power in the State,” he said.

He added the Congress has already shared with the DMK its intention on power sharing. “Let the DMK high command respond to it,” he added.

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram recently said the national party would go with the DMK in the Assembly election even as a section of the party functionaries were for forming an alliance with the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) as its founder Vijay has agreed to share power with alliance parties.