CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president President K. Selvaperunthagai will soon be revamping the district committees in a move to strengthen the party at the grassroots levels ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
The TNCC president recently met all the district presidents and has taken feedback on the grassroots situation of the party.
Sources in the Congress told IANS that the TNCC President was pitching for a revamp of the district committees in consultation with the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The party's local leaders have suggested that the candidates must be drawn from the local leadership and that the cadres will oppose any ‘outsider‘. They have said that the candidates must not be selected as suggested by either the AICC or TNCC but by the District Congress Committees (DCC).
There have been demands from party cadres to go for a hard bargain with the DMK for accommodating Congress legislatures in the government. It may be recalled that the DMK had shared power at the Centre in the UPA -1 and the UPA-2 with the Congress.
P.M. Soolapani, a functionary of the Congress in Erode district while speaking to IANS said, “The Congress has accommodated the DMK at the Centre and had provided plum posts in Cabinet and our cadres want the DMK to reciprocate the same in Tamil Nadu and to accommodate our members in the state cabinet.”
It may be recalled that there have been several rifts at the grassroots level between Congress and DMK cadres and the state-level leaders had intervened in settling these disputes.
The Congress party has 18 legislators from Tamil Nadu in the present Assembly and the local leaders are demanding a share of power in the state.
A senior state-level leader of the Tamil Nadu Congress while speaking to IANS said, “The Congress has its own strength in Tamil Nadu and alliance will move ahead if all the partners maintain the coalition dharma.”
He said that the principal opposition party of Tamil Nadu, AIADMK is also an option which the Congress can approach if the DMK is adamant that it won't share power with the Congress. The senior leader said that the Congress party needs to be in power for it to grow in the state and hence the party will be forced to scout for better options.
It may be recalled that another major ally of the DMK, the Dalit political party, the VCK has already invited the AIADMK for its mega anti-liquor campaign to be held on October 2, the Gandhi Jayanti day.