Amid speculation of fissures, AICC TN in-charge calls on Stalin

Chennai

Gundu Rao on Saturday took his state party president KS Alagiri to meet Stalin. The AICC leader did not hold back his views after the meeting when he admitted to discussing issues in the alliance. Posting an image of the meeting on his Twitter page, Rao tweeted, “Met @arivalayam president @mkstalin at his residence. We discussed the political situation and issues regarding our alliance,” suggesting that there was enough between the allies that necessitated the AICC envoy’s intervention. The meeting has happened in the backdrop of reports indicating that senior TNCC leaders had vented their ire against ally DMK during a recent meeting of the Congress functionaries in state party headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan.

Information from Sathyamurthy Bhavan revealed that a couple of highly placed TNCC leaders had recalled the bitter experiences they had suffered during the seat sharing talks with the DMK ahead of the April 6 Assembly elections.

A Congress source unwilling to be quoted disclosed that there were suggestions of going it alone in the ensuing civic polls, which stunned even a few Congress leaders in the meeting. However, the rendezvous between Rao and Stalin was a reminder to the state Congress members that the high command was only keen on ironing out differences, if any, with the DMK and they do not want to strain ties with DMK in the current political climate the country is in.

“Civic polls, at least in nine districts, are only a little over a month away. Issues need to be discussed prior to that apart from smoothening of ties ahead of the polls. So, the AICC leader might have dropped in to cool the tempers and build confidence among allies,” the leader added.