Congress informed DMK leadership before exiting alliance, says Chidambaram

Chennai: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the party joined hands with TVK only after “informing” DMK leadership. He said the decision was driven by the need to avoid another election (in the event of TVK not being able to get support of majority members) and reflected the broader sentiment among alliance partners.

“We left only after informing them. I knew about it, but I do not want to speak about it any further,” the former Union minister told a news channel on Saturday.

His remarks contradicted DMK leadership’s charge that Congress exited the alliance without even paying a courtesy call on alliance leader M K Stalin. The fallout strained ties between the former allies, with DMK leaders accusing Congress of being “betrayers” and “backstabbers”.

Chidambaram said neither the party nor people of TN were prepared for a re-election. According to him, this view was shared by VCK, CPI, CPM and IUML. The only difference, he said, was that Congress took the decision a day ahead of other allies.

The veteran leader met CPI state secretary M Veerapandian and CPM state secretary P Shanmugam at their respective party offices on Saturday. The meetings came a day after the Left parties criticised Congress functionary Praveen Chakravarty’s social media post, which said he had been nominated to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu on behalf of the newly formed Tamil Nadu Social Justice Progressive Front.

After meeting Chidambaram, Veerapandian told reporters that the interaction was purely a courtesy call. He reiterated that CPI would continue in the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance.