Congress Data Chief’s Closed-Door Meet with Vijay Fuels Alliance Talk in Tamil Nadu
Secret hour-long talks between Congress data chief and Vijay spark alliance crisis.
A discreet hour-long meeting between Congress national data analytics chairman Praveen Chakravarty and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam president Thalapathy Vijay at the actor’s Chennai office on Friday has sent shockwaves through Tamil Nadu’s political corridors, raising serious questions about the Congress high command’s long-term commitment to its alliance with the ruling DMK ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
Chakravarty, widely regarded as one of Rahul Gandhi’s closest confidants and a key architect of the party’s electoral strategy, confirmed the meeting but refused to reveal its contents. The encounter occurred just 48 hours after a Congress delegation led by TNCC in-charge Girish Chodankar held formal alliance talks with Chief Minister MK Stalin, making the timing particularly loaded and suggestive of parallel back-channel explorations.
Highly placed sources within the Congress disclosed that no leader of Chakravarty’s stature would initiate contact with a rising force like Vijay without explicit clearance from the top leadership in Delhi. Insiders interpret the move as a calculated effort to keep alternative options open, thereby strengthening the party’s bargaining position for a significantly higher seat share and guaranteed cabinet berths—benefits Vijay has already publicly committed to offering any partner who joins his front.
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The development has emboldened a vocal section within the Tamil Nadu Congress, including Congress Legislature Party leader S Rajeshkumar, who have long argued that the party is being short-changed in the DMK alliance. Several TNCC functionaries have already rushed to New Delhi to lobby the AICC for a harder stance, citing Vijay’s power-sharing promise as leverage to demand a genuine coalition government rather than the current arrangement of symbolic representation.
While the TNCC issued hurried statements distancing itself from Chakravarty’s initiative and reaffirming loyalty to the DMK, the damage appears done: political observers now see the meeting as the clearest signal yet that the Congress leadership is actively hedging its bets in a state where Vijay’s rapid rise is dramatically reshaping the electoral calculus for 2026.
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