Sonia’s visit may ease DMK-Congress strains

If sources in Tamil Nadu Congress are to be believed, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi herself could attend the conference, which is touted to be another rallying point for secular parties against the ruling BJP. The DMK, which had invited leaders of two left parties, Samajwadi party, BSP, TMC, National Conference, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, and NCP had separately invited Sonia Gandhi and Congress national president Rahul Gandhi through its Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchy Siva.

Though Rahul would be the natural choice of the party to attend the August 30 conference, a pressing overseas engagement, it is believed in the party circles, could see Rahul substituted by his mother Sonia, who last attended a similar conclave, albeit rare, when her party backed HD Kumaraswamy assumed office in Karnataka, muscling out the BJP.

Sonia, who has been limiting her political engagements in the recent years owing to poor health, could also complete her long-pending visit to her friend and DMK president M Karunanidhi during the autonomy conference, which would also be a platform for the secular parties to flex their muscle against Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In the DMK, its working president MK Stalin, who skipped a visit to the HDK swearing in, courtesy the Thoothukudi police firing then would utilise the opportunity to build bridges with the leaders of Congress and other secular parties willing to dare the BJP. Anna Arivalayam has also planned to get chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekar Rao (KCR had already warmed up to Stalin to gang up against the BJP), plus a few other chief ministers who are at loggerheads with the BJP-led Centre on the dais of the autonomy conference.

As much as warming up to regional and national allies spread across the country and building a platform for an alliance against the BJP in 2019, DMK would also utilise the opportunity to iron out differences with the state Congress, a minor section of which has of late been gladly feeding rumours to media about the Congress partnering with Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran. The conference is expected to put to rest speculation about the DMK dumping Congress or the Congress partnering with Dhinakaran and possibly with Thol Thirumavalavan’s VCK.