‘Most Congress functionaries in favour of supporting TVK’

Chennai: AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar on Tuesday said that Congress functionaries ‘by and large' were in favour of extending support to TVK. Chodankar said he has conveyed the feedback from functionaries to party high command. "High command will take a decision," he said without ruling out support of the five Congress MLAs to TVK which has fallen short of majority mark in the state assembly. However, Chidankar said TVK has not contacted him yet seeking support. "I don't know if they have contacted anyone else in the party," he said. "The messages and phone calls from various cadres and leaders who are contacting me is that since people have given the mandate to TVK. Since they (TVK) are secular forces, we should somehow support them is the feedback I got," Chodankar said. Congress held a meeting with the party MLAs, when a resolution was passed granting power to Congress leadership in Delhi to take a call on having a post-poll alliance with TVK. In the 2026 assembly election, TVK won 108 seats, falling 10 seats short of the majority mark of 118. Congress leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi spoke to TVK president Vijay over phone triggering speculation that the party might extent support. Strengthening the speculation, Congress leaders chose not to visit DMK headquarters in Chennai to meet chief minister M K Stalin when all other alliance party leaders called on him. After the meeting, Selvaperunthagai told reporters, Congress leadership in Delhi will decide alliance with TVK. "Congress is a national party and we have leaders such as INC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. They will take the decision on aligning with the TVK," Selvaperunthagai said.Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who was one of the advocates of Congress-TVK alliance from the beginning, also made a similar opinion. "Congress leadership in Delhi should take a decision to prevent BJP's backdoor entry into TN. The people of TN rejected both DMK and BJP, and Congress was a collateral to DMK's defeat," Manickam Tagore told ToI.
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