Cong upset after DMK nominates party members to all 3 RS seats

DMK president MK Stalin’s candidate list for March 26 Rajya Sabha polls has surprised ally Congress party more than a few members of the Dravidian major itself.

The Congress party, which was hopeful that the southern ally might consider its request for an Upper House nomination at least this time, was left crestfallen after Stalin announced all three names from his own party.

DT Next has reliably learnt that Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi had personally expressed her dissatisfaction to DMK Parliamentary party leader TR Baalu and his deputy Kanimozhi over their high command not considering their request for an upper house nomination at leastthis time.

The national party had unsuccessfully approached the DMK to re-nominate former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha last year. The request was turned down by the DMK which obliged the other ally MDMK and nominated its general secretary Vaiko to the Rajya Sabha as was agreed in the electoral pact for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Sonia Gandhi was learnt to have spoken to Baalu directly as soon as the Election Commission notified the vacancy to the Upper House. Baalu, however, had earnestly turned down the request in consultation with Stalin who was understood to have reasoned that they had only agreed to apportion a seat only for Man Mohan Singh and they were under compulsion to accommodate own party members ahead of an election year. Stalin, party sources revealed, had agreed to give a favourable consideration to the offer in the next term.

Understandably, an unhappy Sonia had conveyed her displeasure to Kanimozhi, who was nominated to the Upper House with Congress support shortly after the two parties had parted ways in 2013. Sonia was also believed to have raised doubts about the DMK’s commitment to the alliance during the meeting. Unsurprisingly, the Congress chief had improvised the opportunity to also recall DMK’s boycott of an earlier all-party meeting on Citizenship Amendment Act organised by the AICC, citing TNCC president KS Alagiri’s statement made during the recently concluded rural local body polls.

If information trickling out of both parties were something to go by, the Congress Working Committee, the highest policy-making body of the grand old party, might even have discussed the suspicious behaviour of the DMK, especially rumours that it was under pressure from the ruling BJP to dump Congress and there was a possibility of it gravitating towards the saffron camp.

A DMK insider, who did not wish to be named, downplayed the speculation of gravitating towards the BJP as absurd and said, “If they wanted a RS nomination, they (AICC) should have asked our leader in advance. They are aware that Stalin would only consider requests from the AICC and not TNCC. What can we do if they blame us after announcing candidates?” He also ruled out the possibility of the high command reconsidering its decision and accommodating Congress this time.