2029 PM race sparks crisis: TVK's push for Vijay irks ally Congress

On Sunday, while addressing the cadres at a party meeting in  Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister and Killiyoor Congress  MLA, S. Rajesh Kumar, said that he will quit the cabinet if the TVK  refuses to accept Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister candidate for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.

“Rahul Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate for the 2029 parliament election. He will become the next PM. If  TVK refuses to accept this, the two Congress ministers will walk out of the cabinet. For us, the party is above all other considerations. Our cadres want to see Rahul Gandhi as the next PM. Our goal is to achieve that,” Rajesh Kumar said as he was talking among the party men and Congress cadres at the swearing-in ceremony of George Robinson as the party’s Kanyakumari West district unit president.

Rajesh’s comments stem from the angst shared by the Congress party men as the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has been pitching for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay as the PM candidate.  There have been repeated attempts by the TVK ministers to project Vijay as a potential candidate in the prime minister race from Tamil Nadu in 2029. The TVK ministers, in the past few weeks, have taken turns highlighting how Vijay’s popularity has spread across India. Several Instagram reels and shorts showing Vijay’s performance in Tamil Nadu have gone viral in the Hindi- speaking states.

The “Vijay as PM” propaganda was first raised by PWD minister Aadhav Arjuna during a debate on the delimitation exercise in the assembly. He said a veshti-clad Tamilian from Tamil Nadu should emerge as Prime Minister. His remarks were followed by other TVK ministers, including D. Sarathkumar, A.Srinath and K. Jagadeeswari projected Vijay as a possible prime ministerial candidate.

This promotion gained national attention when one of the media outlets released a survey calling Vijay the third most preferred prime ministerial choice in the country. The first two were Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi.

This sudden elevation of Vijay as PM by his cabinet colleagues and party leaders, and the social media promotions, irked its new ally Congres, which is part of the ruling coalition in the state. In fact, the Congress was the first to pledge its support for the TVK when it was short of numbers to form the government. The five MLAs from the Congress remain crucial for the survival of the TVK administration.

Though not endorsed by the TVK leaders or Vijay, the “Vijay as PM” push comes at a time when the Congress is actively pitching Rahul as the prime challenger to Narendra Modi for 2029. The  Congress, which announced its alliance with TVK for 2029 and  2031, planned to capitalise on Vijay’s popularity to win across South India. But TVK has already ramped up its efforts to launch its party in the neighbouring states of Kerala and Karnataka, where the Congress is in power. The TVK is also popular in the North Eastern states like Manipur and Mizoram, which have a majority Christian population. The TVK is also actively working to increase the fan following for Vijay in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress, which is well aware of the implications, chose to remain silent and believed the propaganda would not gain traction. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president Manickam Tagore, when asked about this, dismissed it, attributing it to the “fan club mindset” among the ministers. He advised the ministers to concentrate on governance and administrative duties instead.

It has to be recalled that the TVK government was actually installed by the Congress. Several administrative procedures like the finance augmentation committee, designing a few welfare schemes and even TVK’s legal wing have been functioning with active guidance from the Congress. Sources say that Montek Singh Ahluwalia was roped in to head the finance augmentation committee with the help and guidance of former minister P. Chidambaram. Praveen Chakravarthy, who became the Rajya Sabha MP in TVK’s ticket, is one of the most trusted advisors of the TVK government. On the other side, Abhishek Manu Singhvi is TVK’s unofficial legal advisor.

Despite all this, the TVK has frequently avoided aligning directly with Congress on certain national political positions. The Congress too has not inducted the TVK into the INDIA bloc as it doesn’t have MPs. While TVK’s idea is to preserve functional government-to-government relations with the Centre, the Congress wants strength in the Parliament as of now.

However, Congress minister Rajesh Kumar’s warning reflects the growing tensions within the alliance. The support of five MLAs of Congress remains crucial for TVK to enjoy the majority mark in the state assembly. In return, TVK has given two ministerial berths to Congress leaders Rajesh Kumar and P. Viswanathan. While Rajesh is the tourism minister, Viswanathan holds the most lucrative higher education portfolio.

Despite TVK’s clarification on the PM push, saying it is only out of the love and affection for Vijay among his fans and the personal aspirations of the ministers, there seems to be a method in the madness. The talk by the ministers, the continuous social media promotion and a TV media survey- one after the other- indicate the deliberate campaign on the part of TVK.