Stalin joins CMs’ oath taking, sets eyes on nat’l role

And Stalin did not stop with that. The born-again lover of Congress party on Monday flew all the way to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to rub shoulders with the regional allies like him in the swearing in ceremony of Congress chief ministers there.

The DMK PR machinery also took pain to share photographs of its leader travelling with Rahul and the show of solidarity of the non-BJP leaders at the ceremony, obviously to brag about the rapport with the Congress and Stalin’s entry in to the league to national leaders.

Notably, it was the same Stalin who had conveniently abstained from the swearing in ceremony of Congress-JD(S) govt earlier to not only avoid being seen with Cauvery fanatic JD(s) and Karnataka Congress leaders but also keep distance from a relatively weak Congress top brass then.

While Stalin’s hobnobbing with national leaders might help amplify his stature, some, even in the DMK, suspect that the hurry shown by Stalin to voluntarily name Rahul for PM was overkill.

“Congress has no other viable option than DMK to face Lok Sabha elections inTamil Nadu. They are desperate to ride piggyback on us. Unless the Congress had requested Stalin to propose Rahul in return for something big in future, which does not seem to be the case, why should we jump the gun? Other than increasing Stalin’s stature, what benefits would the move accrue,” wondered a DMK senior, refusing to believe that his leader had pre-empted to prevent TTV Dhinakaran and Kamal Haasan from luring the Congress.

“It could lend some additional elbow room to the Congress during seat sharing negotiations.They are known to exploit situations and extract seats disproportionate to their strength from us,” the DMK leader requesting anonymity added.

Apparently, it was this fear of the Congress playing big brother and the possibility of the regional parties having a prominent role in the next Union government that has kept other regional players Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, Omar Abdullah, Left leaders and even liaison of the front Chandrababu Naidu on the issue of PM candidate.