Congress is facing sharp internal questioning in Tamil Nadu after leaders acknowledged that a pre-poll understanding with Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam was examined but abandoned before the Assembly election that pushed the DMK-Congress alliance out of power.The debate has gained urgency after TVK emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly, short of the 118 needed for a majority but well ahead of the DMK’s 59 seats and the AIADMK’s 47. Congress, which contested as part of the DMK-led alliance, was reduced to five seats, deepening frustration among state leaders who believe the party misread the scale of voter anger against the incumbent government and underestimated Vijay’s pull among younger and first-time voters.
Party insiders say informal discussions had taken place before the election on whether Congress should review its long partnership with the DMK and explore a tactical arrangement with TVK. The idea was not taken forward because the central leadership and a section of the state unit felt that breaking with the DMK would damage Congress’s ideological positioning, particularly on secular politics, social justice and its broader national alignment against the BJP. The leadership also feared that partnering a new personality-driven party with an untested organisational structure could appear opportunistic.
That calculation is now under attack. Several Congress figures argue that the party’s poor tally shows it gained little from staying with the DMK, while paying the price for anti-incumbency, governance fatigue and discontent over unemployment, inflation, local-level corruption allegations and perceived arrogance within the ruling establishment. The defeat has revived a familiar complaint inside Congress: the party often negotiates too cautiously in Tamil Nadu and ends up as a junior partner with limited room to rebuild its independent base.
TVK’s performance has altered the political map. Vijay, who launched Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in 2024 and entered the 2026 contest as a first-time challenger, turned his film-star appeal into a broad electoral wave. His campaign mixed Tamil cultural assertion, welfare promises, anti-corruption messaging and youth mobilisation. TVK’s gains in urban and semi-urban seats, including several constituencies in and around Chennai, indicated that the party cut across traditional Dravidian loyalties rather than merely splitting opposition votes.
The Congress dilemma was rooted in both arithmetic and identity. A tie-up with TVK could have given Vijay a national partner and offered Congress a route into a changing electorate. Yet it would also have meant abandoning the DMK, a long-standing ally in national politics and a key component of the anti-BJP bloc. Senior leaders worried that such a shift would weaken opposition unity beyond Tamil Nadu and raise questions about Congress’s reliability as a coalition partner.
Supporters of the DMK alliance within Congress argue that the party could not have predicted the scale of Vijay’s breakthrough. They maintain that TVK’s rise was built on a late surge, a carefully managed campaign and the appeal of a political outsider at a time when voters were looking for change. They also point out that TVK has not crossed the majority mark, meaning government formation may still depend on post-poll support, abstentions or a carefully negotiated arrangement with smaller parties and independents.
Critics counter that warning signs were visible well before polling. Vijay’s rallies drew large crowds, his messaging found traction on social media, and discontent with the DMK government had widened beyond the opposition’s traditional base. They argue that Congress should have used pre-poll surveys, constituency feedback and youth mobilisation data more aggressively, rather than assuming that the DMK’s organisational machinery would withstand the challenge.