Tamil Nadu polls: Congress revives power-sharing debate; DMK repeats its stand

CHENNAI: Days before the results for the assembly elections, AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar rekindled the debate on power sharing on Wednesday with his remarks that "Congress will no longer be a neutral party in TN politics."Chodankar said Congress would have to be either part of the govt or in the opposition for it to grow in TN. "We cannot be a neutral player anymore in TN. We have to be either in the govt or in the opposition. Without active politics we can't grow our party in TN," Chodankar told media in Delhi.The statement is seen as a recalibration of Congress' strategy in TN after DMK turned down its demand for power sharing during the seat-sharing talks. During the talks, a section of Congress leaders including Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore wanted power sharing to be part of the deal with DMK.Though Congress dropped the demand there was discontent among a number of Congress leaders at the state and national level. The absence ofa joint campaign by chief minister M K Stalin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was attributed to this discontent. With just four days left for election results, Chodankar has once again opened the chapter. He, however, said Congress has not initiated any fresh negotiation with DMK on power sharing.Speaking to ToI, Chodankar reitered his earlier statement that Congress will either be "part of the govt or provide issue-based support to the govt and raise our voice for the people.""We can't be neutral anymore. We have to be with people by becoming their voice. Growth of our party is our priority," he said. Chodankar said Congress has followed coalition dharma in TN by opposing the divisive forces such as AIADMK and BJP. He, however, expressed confidence that DMK will form govt."Our alliance has a better chance of forming the govt in TN. Stalin will become CM again. This is the first time many alliance parties came together to stop BJP from entering TN," Chodankar said.Responding to his remarks, DMK reiterated that power sharing was out of question. "We have already said that there is no place for sharing power and we are firm on it," DMK organisational secretary R S Bharathi told ToI.He dismissed the statement noting that that there was no power sharing demand from Rahul Gandhi or AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.