Confident that Vijay will accept Rahul as Prime Ministerial candidate: Manickam Tagore

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore expressed optimism that TVK leader and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay would endorse Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the INDIA bloc’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha polls in 2029. He confidently stated that Vijay would announce his support for Gandhi ahead of the parliamentary election, dismissing earlier slogans projecting Vijay as the future Prime Minister.

Tagore clarified that only a few individuals within the party were expressing their personal preferences, which had since ceased. He assured that the Tamil Nadu Congress would contest the elections projecting Rahul Gandhi, and he was 100% certain that Vijay would support this decision.

Tagore also predicted that the DMK, which left the INDIA bloc after Congress joined the TVK-led Ministry post-Assembly polls, would not secure any significant seats in the Lok Sabha elections. He believed their attempt to form a third front would only result in third place. Tagore further stated that the DMK's exit had not weakened the Opposition at the national level, as his party's 23 members in the INDIA bloc remained ideologically united.

He dismissed the likelihood of movements like the Cockroach Janata Party forming into a real third front, claiming such prospects were slim.

The Congress leader alleged that the BJP had only fabricated stories about third front possibilities to fragment the Opposition votes. When asked about potential aggression from TVK against the BJP, Tagore responded that TVK was a young party standing united with them on matters like delimitation. In Tamil Nadu, he mentioned the existence of a Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance, which would collectively decide actions against the BJP if it acted adversely towards the state. Tagore expressed confidence that this alliance would stand with them on the protest ground.