The top brass of the Tamil Nadu Congress, including state president B Manickam Tagore and MP Praveen Chakravarthy, met chief minister C Joseph Vijay at the Secretariat in Chennai on Monday.
Rajesh Kumar is the tourism minister and MLA from Killiyoor assembly constituency in Kanniyakumari, while Viswanathan is the higher education minister and MLA from Melur constituency in Madurai district. The meeting assumes significance amid a row in the southern state following remarks by Congress minister S Rajesh Kumar that he and his colleague P Viswanathan would resign as ministers if the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) did not support Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2029 elections. The Congress, which won five seats under the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, snapped ties with the DMK and formed an alliance with TVK after the April 23 Assembly elections were announced on May 4. The alliance requires 118 numbers to form the government. After a gap of 59 years, the Congress has two representatives in the cabinet led by chief minister C Joseph Vijay.
On August 29 in Kanniyakumari, Rajesh Kumar said, “If Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam does not accept our demand, the two Congress ministers will not continue in the ministry. He stressed that political parties may have different opinions, but Rahul Gandhi would be the only prime ministerial candidate for the Congress.
At an event in Madurai, social welfare and women empowerment minister K Jagadeshwari said, “our CM will be the next PM” amid thunderous support from the audience. Similarly, human resource and management minister D Sarath Kumar, while speaking in the Assembly last week, said, “our leader (C Joseph Vijay) who is in our hearts and as the chief minister at the Fort (Fort St George, the Secretariat) you are our tomorrow’s Prime Minister for Bharat”. DMK leader and spokesperson TKS Elangovan said the Congress stance was right and questioned TVK’s rationale for positioning Vijay for the top post.
