'IN TAMIL NADU, AIADMK-BJP HELP SPLIT WILL DMK-CONGRESS SWEEP LS SEATS'

Whatever anti-incumbency you believe the current government has accrued will be set off by that vote split, says R. Mohan Kumaramangalam, working president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.

- 

With the Lok Sabha elections coming up in TamilNadu, political pundits have been predicting that it would be a clean sweep for the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its I.N.D.I.A partner, the Congress. In 2019, the DMK won 23 seats while the Congress won eight and this time round too, the alliance is confident about their victory.

However, the DMK government has been plagued with issues including that of corruption and adverse remarks on Sanatan Dharma, and BJP state president K. Annamalai has been attacking them every day on key aspects. The morale-boosting win of the Congress in Telangana seems to have given a fresh impetus to the party in the run-up to the 2024 elections. In this exclusive chat with The Sunday Guardian, working president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), R.

Mohan Kumaramangalam, opens up about the upcoming elections, the DMK, the BJP, the Sanatan Dharma controversy and whether the Congress was still relevant to Tamil Nadu politics today.

Q: Congress has a pre-poll alliance with the DMK. How many seats are you confident of winning in the Lok Sabha elections? A: I think like the last elections (2019) this time also will be a sweep for the DMK-Congress alliance. It obviously helps that the AIADMK and the BJP have separated ways so the votes will be split in different directions. Whatever anti-incumbency you believe the current government has accrued will be set off by that vote split. Most of the opinion polls too are predicting the same result in the state.