Why didn’t Rahul Gandhi, Stalin share the stage? Once ‘brothers’, bonhomie goes missing in Tamil Nadu campaign
While the LoP and CM M K Stalin did not hold any joint events, the DMK chief campaigned along with Mallikarjun Kharge, Arvind Kejriwal, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
DMK and Congress leaders say M K Stalin (left) and Rahul Gandhi had scheduling problems. (File Photo) In April 2024, the last time Rahul Gandhi was in Tamil Nadu to campaign before this Assembly election season, he made headlines by stopping at a famous roadside bakery, on his way to Coimbatore, to buy Mysore pak and gulab jamun for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, whom he called his “elder brother”. Gandhi then gifted the box of sweets to Stalin at the rally venue.
The warmth has been mutual as the DMK chief too often endearingly calls him brother. At that joint rally, Stalin had called Gandhi “the future of India” and “hero of our hope”. In fact, it was Stalin who, in 2018, first proposed Gandhi as the Opposition’s Prime Minister candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. And a couple of years ago, he had asked Gandhi to take the leadership role to unite Opposition parties across India to take on the BJP.
But the two “brothers”, curiously, did not share the stage during this Assembly election. In fact, Gandhi campaigned in Tamil Nadu for just two days, addressing six rallies. Sources in the Congress and the DMK argue that the two could not share the stage because of scheduling issues. Congress leaders say Gandhi anyway could not campaign much as he had to stay put in Delhi to attend Parliament and meetings of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and INDIA bloc in the run-up to the three-day session on women’s reservation.
A section of Congress leaders says Gandhi also did not go out of his way to share a stage with Stalin, who campaigned in his party’s bastion of Chennai on Tuesday, the last day of canvassing ahead of voting on April 23. Gandhi could have joined Stalin in the city, but did not campaign on Tuesday. While leaders of both parties say there is no strain in ties – they point out that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge did share the stage with Stalin on Sunday – many wonder whether an element of coldness has crept in.
After all, those close to Gandhi say he was open to the idea of the party opening talks with Vijay’s TVK for an alliance. The TVK, too, was said to be keen to join hands with the Congress, Left parties and VCK. But barring a few, the Tamil Nadu leadership of the Congress and Kharge were opposed to any dalliance with Vijay, and were keen to continue with the DMK. This is despite the DMK having rejected the Congress’s initial demand for power sharing in the alliance negotiations.
“The alliance dharma is just for the Congress. They (DMK) will not share power… but we have to… like it was in the UPA era, and may be in the future also if the alliance continues,” a Congress leader said.
A handful of Congress leaders believe the party made a mistake by not aligning with Vijay, who they believe is rapidly gaining ground. “We or the Left aligning with Vijay would have given him more credibility and we would have swept… and we could have asked for at least half of the seats in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections… It is an opportunity lost,” another leader said.
Stalin did praise Gandhi’s rally speech in a social media post after his joint public meeting with Kharge in Hosur. He also thanked Kharge for his “stirring and impactful speech” in defence of democracy and in support of the alliance, and added, “Brother Rahul Gandhi’s powerful speech yesterday and yours today have greatly energised our alliance’s cadre.”
While Stalin and Rahul, who were expected to share the stage but did not, two leaders who were not on talking terms but did are AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and AMMK chief T T V Dhinakaran. It is, after all, a do-or-die election for both leaders and the battle for survival brought their parties together first and the two later during the campaign. With Vijay’s TVK becoming a talking point, the AIADMK is pulling all its might to consolidate the anti-DMK and anti-incumbency votes, especially in western Tamil Nadu – the Kongu belt – where it won 33 of the region’s 50 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Interestingly, Stalin shared the stage with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Arvind Kejriwal and Bihar-based Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s Tejashwi Yadav. Both came to Tamil Nadu in support of the DMK. Stalin held a roadshow with Kejriwal in Chennai and addressed a rally with Tejashwi in Mettupalayam near Coimbatore. Stalin had joined Gandhi and Tejashwi during the former’s Voter Adhikar Yatra in the run-up to the Bihar elections last year.
“The young lion from Bihar, my ideological brother Tejashwi Yadav, spoke with clarity and conviction about the strength of the Dravidian model, and Tamil Nadu’s strides in education, healthcare, human development, and economic growth. I thank him for standing with us, strengthening our alliance, and for his powerful campaign… Ours is not just a political bond, but a shared commitment to social justice,” Stalin said in a social media post after the rally.
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