CHENNAI: The coalition government wave is threatening to rock both major alliances in the State, the latest from the State Congress unit to seek a share in power if the coalition led by the DMK returns to power after the 2026 Assembly election.

Addressing a gathering at a public meeting in the Delta districts on Tuesday night, outspoken Congress spokesperson ‘Tiruchy’ Velusamy said that the State would head to a coalition government next year and the Congress might have at least a couple of ministers.

While such comments are not usual, what made it more interesting was the subtle endorsement from TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai on Wednesday that Velusamy is a senior leader, whose “comments are always correct”.

Understandably, senior DMK leader TKS Elangovan downplayed it as Velusamy’s ‘desire’. “These are issues that need to be discussed when the seat-sharing talks happen later. The situation in the State is not ripe for coalition governments.”

On the other side of the political aisle, an exasperated AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday once again sought to understate Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated assertion on the BJP being a part of the government should AIADMK return to power next year.

“Shah only said that the NDA will form a government. He did not say it will be a coalition government,” EPS said on Wednesday, softly repudiating the demand by Shah, the BJP’s pointsperson for such power plays.

The biggest surprise popped up from the already troubled PMK camp, where president Anbumani Ramadoss said his party would strive to be a part of the coalition government. The statement sufficiently upset an already worried Palaniswami, who was forced into admitting that the PMK was not a part of the alliance, just a day after publicly exuding confidence that the Vanniyar outfit would return to the coalition.

Though it could be argued that the ambitious statements, barring the BJP, might be strategies of smaller parties to drive a hard bargain for seats, the political fluidity in the State triggering such statements

cannot be overlooked.

Leaders from both Dravidian parties conceded privately that they cannot afford to lose allies ahead of what is widely seen as a tough contest, a vulnerability that the smaller parties are trying to exploit.