Amid PM face row with TVK, Congress MP Praveen Chakravarty meets CM Vijay at Secretariat

CHENNAI: Amid mounting friction between ruling ally Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and the Congress over the projection of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Praveen Chakravarty met Vijay at the Secretariat on Monday (August 31), a day after a Congress minister warned that the party's two ministers in the state cabinet would quit if TVK did not back Rahul Gandhi for the top post.

Though details of the meeting were not immediately available, sources said Chakravarty's interaction with Vijay was aimed at addressing the repeated statements by TVK ministers and leaders projecting the chief minister as a future PM.

The issue has emerged as a potential source of friction in the ruling alliance, with Congress leaders insisting that Rahul Gandhi should be the opposition bloc's choice for the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

The timing of Chakravarty's meeting is significant. On Sunday (August 30), Congress leader and Tourism Minister Rajesh Kumar had publicly warned that the two Congress ministers in the Vijay cabinet would resign if TVK did not accept Rahul Gandhi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

“When journalists and media persons ask me about this in my capacity as a minister, I make our position very clear. Our leader Rahul Gandhi will become the next Prime Minister in the 2029 parliamentary election. If TVK does not agree to this, the two Congress ministers will not continue in their posts,” Kumar said at the oath-taking ceremony of the Congress Kanyakumari West district president.

On Monday (August 31), Congress MP and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president B Manickam Tagore also met Vijay at the Secretariat.

Tagore was part of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, whose chairman and members visited the state and held discussions with Vijay and senior government officials on housing and urban development.

Tagore's meeting with Vijay, though official in nature, came against the backdrop of his recent criticism of TVK's pro-Vijay PM pitch. He had described the repeated assertions by TVK ministers that Vijay would become PM as reflecting a “fan club mentality”.

The exchanges have exposed an early faultline in the ruling coalition, even as the 2029 Lok Sabha election is still nearly three years away.

TVK has 107 MLAs, while Congress has four. IUML and VCK have two MLAs each and are part of the Vijay cabinet, while CPM and CPI, with two MLAs each, extend outside support.