On April 15, when the entire nation was debating Delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Nagercoil, campaigning for the AIADMK-BJP candidates for the upcoming election scheduled to be held on April 23. With just a week to go until the voting day, BJP leaders from Delhi, including Modi, have made a beeline to Tamil Nadu. In contrast, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has not visited the state even once so far.
His absence from the Tamil Nadu election campaign scene has raised several questions, while making the differences within the DMK-Congress alliance apparent. While a few Congress leaders say that he will visit soon after the special session of Parliament, other leaders say that Rahul is yet to make a decision about his visit to Tamil Nadu. In fact, he was expected to visit any time after April 9 — the first phase of elections in Assam, Puducherry, and Kerala.
“He seems to be uninterested and doesn’t want to come. Several senior Congress leaders are said to have spoken to him,” says a senior DMK leader. In fact, the DMK too had informed Rahul that his visit would boost the alliance's strength and help increase the Congress’s vote share. The Congress leaders in the state, however, say that Rahul’s campaign schedules are yet to be confirmed and there is confusion because of the special session of Parliament.
“He had plans to visit. Even to Puducherry, he came only on the penultimate day of the campaign. So there is more time,” says a senior Congress leader. However, another senior Congress leader, who is contesting the election from one of the constituencies in south Tamil Nadu, says that there was barely any response from Rahul’s side, or that there was a “lukewarm” response from the Congress high command when requests from the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee were sent to Delhi.
In fact, the BJP, which has a very minimal vote share compared to the Congress, has made elaborate campaign plans to meet the people. The BJP, which is contesting 27 seats — one fewer than the Congress — in the upcoming elections, has made sure that even chief ministers like Devendra Fadnavis come to Tamil Nadu to campaign for their candidates. It has deployed strong logistics to ensure that the campaign is in full swing; choppers and special aircraft have been deployed to help the star campaigners travel around the state.
But the Congress, which had earned 10 MPs from the state, has not been able to convince its leader, Rahul Gandhi, to visit. Although he visited neighbouring Kerala and Puducherry, he did not make any attempt to reach even the state border. Furthermore, when in Puducherry, Rahul did not even mention the name of the DMK or Stalin. Incidentally, both Stalin and Rahul campaigned in Puducherry on the same day but did not even choose to see eye to eye.
Even senior Congress leaders, including Girish Chodankar, who conducted the alliance talks, did not turn up for campaigning. Except for Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who came in support of Sriperumbudur Congress candidate K. Selvaperunthagai, no national leader has been mentioned in the campaign schedule. A senior Congress functionary says that Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should have campaigned for all 28 candidates. “They enjoy support among the people of Tamil Nadu,” says the Congress functionary.
The Congress currently has 18 MLAs, much higher than the BJP’s four MLAs. There are 10 MPs from the Congress who fought the 2024 election in alliance with the DMK.
ALSO READ:
“Rahul’s visit and campaign is not about helping the alliance or the DMK. It will only help the 28 candidates of our own party,” says the senior Congress leader, who for his part had already informed senior leaders in Delhi of what Rahul’s absence could mean for the Congress in a state like Tamil Nadu, which still has Congress sympathisers in many pockets. Rahul’s absence has turned into a point of discussion among the Congress functionaries, while some of them even express disappointment over the disregard for a state which had provided 10 MPs.
Rahul apparently has not visited the state even once after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The imagery of Rahul Gandhi stopping his convoy midway, crossing the road by jumping a divider, and buying Mysorepak to hand over to Chief Minister Stalin, of course, is not lost on those who watch the Congress closely in Tamil Nadu.
