It is useful to begin with recent chronology. The Congress fought the elections in Tamil Nadu as a junior partner of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). It fought in West Bengal against the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Both the DMK and the TMC have lost. The Congress has now started supporting the TMC in West Bengal and broken ranks with the DMK to support the surprise winner in Tamil Nadu, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).

What has the DMK done for the Congress over the past decade? In 2014, the Congress fought in Tamil Nadu on its own. The scars of events such as the 2G scam were still fresh. Both the DMK and the Congress got zero seats. In 2019 and 2024, it fought with the DMK and won eight and nine Lok Sabha seats in the state. Had the DMK not accommodated the Congress, this would have been impossible. Despite having only 7.2% of the country’s total Lok Sabha seats, Tamil Nadu contributed 15.4% and 9.1% to the Congress’s Lok Sabha tally in 2019 and 2024, respectively.

Did the DMK’s politics have problems? The Tamil Nadu results, where the debutant TVK broke the entrenched Dravidian duopoly in the state’s politics, are a major indictment of establishment politics. Was the Congress party unaware of these problems? Or was it happy to sweep them under the carpet as long as it served its political purpose while piggybacking on the DMK? Anybody with even an iota of political honesty will see the truth in........

© hindustantimes