- DMK MP Kanimozhi wrote a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker and said the alliance with the Congress has ended
- The DMK had also called the Congress a "backstabber"
- The move will have strong implications for INDIA alliance as well
Making the end of the DMK's alliance with the Congress official, Kanimozhi has written to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, requesting that the seating arrangement of the party's members be changed from their current positions next to their former ally.
The DMK, with 22 MPs, is the fourth largest constituent of the Opposition INDIA alliance, which has been under strain for some time now and appears to have reached a breaking point with the Congress - which fought the Tamil Nadu elections as part of a coalition led by the DMK - supporting Vijay's TVK to form a government.
Writing to Om Birla, who is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Kanimozhi highlighted "changed political circumstances" and said the partnership with the Congress had ended. Live updates
"I write to respectfully request suitable changes in the seating arrangement of the Members of Parliament belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the Lok Sabha. In view of the changed political circumstances and as our alliance with the Indian National Congress has come to an end, it may not be appropriate for our Members to continue occupying the present seating arrangement alongside them in the House," the DMK MP from Thoothukudi said.
"I therefore request your good office to kindly make the necessary arrangements for the Hon'ble Members of the DMK Parliamentary Party to be allotted separate seating, enabling them to effectively discharge their responsibilities in the August House. I shall be grateful for your kind consideration in this regard," she added.
The DMK and Congress, which had been allies for decades with blips in between, came together again in 2016. The DMK made its sense of betrayal by the Congress clear on Wednesday when, speaking to NDTV, a party leader called the ally a "backstabber".
DMK Spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai also claimed that the Congress won five seats only because it was in a coalition led by the party.
"Otherwise, they would have drawn a blank at the recent polls," he asserted.
The Congress has said it is supporting the TVK to honour the mandate of the people of Tamil Nadu, maintaining that this is the "responsible" thing to do.
INDIA Troubles
Kanimozhi's letter brought the simmering discontent in the opposition bloc to the fore on a day another key constituent, the Samajwadi Party, also took an apparent jibe at the Congress for trying to help Vijay, whose TVK won 108 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, get to the majority mark of 118 at the expense of the DMK.
Posting images of himself with DMK chief MK Stalin and Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee, both of whom lost Assembly elections in their states, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav wrote in Hindi, "We don't abandon people in times of difficulty."
The Samajwadi Party had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and stunned the BJP by winning 37 of 80 seats, emerging as the second largest constituent of the INDIA bloc.
While appearing to work together at the national level, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress also contested against each other in the West Bengal elections. Banerjee had also been vying for leadership of the INDIA alliance and the tensions between the Trinamool and the Congress were apparent during campaigning for the Bengal elections as well.
