Congress strategy meet
NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday chaired a meeting with party leaders from Tamil Nadu, where assembly elections are expected to be held in April.Lok Sabha leader of opposition and former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary (organisation), KC Venugopal, also attended the meeting at the party headquarters, Indira Bhawan, in Delhi. Veteran leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, who hails from Tamil Nadu, was also present.“We held a key meeting with our leaders from Tamil Nadu. We are confident that the people of Tamil Nadu would choose equality, social justice, empowerment and good governance over the bigotry, sectarianism, and anti-federal, discriminatory politics of the RSS-BJP,” Kharge posted on X along with a video of the meeting. “The Congress party is determined to play an important role in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of the state,” he added.In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is part of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by chief minister MK Stalin’s DMK. The SPA swept the state in 2021, winning 159 of the 234 assembly seats, with the DMK alone securing 133 and the Congress 18. In recent days, however, speculation has surfaced about a section of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit favouring an alliance with Tamil superstar Vijay’s fledgling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. Earlier this week, Gandhi posted on X accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of “insulting” the Tamil people and their culture over the non-release of Vijay’s film “Jana Nayagan,” which is embroiled in a legal battle with the Censor Board over its clearance.
