Congress Should Protect Secular Space in Tamil Nadu: Manickam Tagore

The Congress’s Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore, who is an MP from Tamil Nadu, weighs in on the Assembly election results. The outcome, he says, was as much a verdict against the DMK-led government as it was a rejection of “entry of hate into Tamil Nadu”. Actor Vijay, whose TVK emerged as the single-largest party, did not align with the BJP, he says, and that the Congress “should do whatever it takes to protect the secular space of Tamil Nadu”. Excerpts: * What went wrong with the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu ? The vote was against the government. People voted against the government. And DMK was the ruling party. We were alliance partners. We were not in the government. And people voted us out; collateral damage happened to us. The same alliance that won the Parliament election could not win the Assembly elections. The only difference was the government and the emergence of the TVK. * Could your alliance and party not sense there was a sentiment against the government? When the BJP changed its state president in 2025 and sealed the alliance with Edappadi K Palaniswami (AIADMK leader), the style with which Mr Amit Shah did it was not acceptable to the people of Tamil Nadu. And that emergence of Mr Vijay was certain by that time. And the surge on the ground started by that time. And he was able to get a lot of support from the youngsters and from all other sections. He has broken barriers of caste and communities. Age was the only barrier. By that time, he was getting the support of people below the age of 45. And that has translated into votes now. * Are you suggesting that there was a sentiment against the DMK, but the AIADMK could not reap its benefit because of its alliance with the BJP? And Vijay was the beneficiary of that anti-DMK sentiment ? In Tamil Nadu, there was always an alternative to Kazhagam politics, a space of around 40% (of voters). Sixty per cent of the space was occupied by both the Dravida Kazhagams. The Congress tried to occupy that (40%) space in 1989. Mr Vijayakanth tried for that space sometime back in 2006. After that, nobody has tried for that space sincerely. And this time, we had a popular person and he was able to connect with people en masse. And therefore, he was able to bring that change. * There was a talk in the Congress a couple of months ago that the party should ally with the TVK. Would that have changed the situation? I don’t think that we should look at it that way. The Congress is a 140-year-old party. We have a process in place. When we take decisions like this, there is a consultative process. That consultation process was there. I agree there was a divided opinion. When our opinions were taken, we expressed our opinions with data. But when some of our colleagues had different opinions and when the Congress president had to take a final call, the Congress president took a call with the true intention that it would help our party. I don’t think that we should go into that part now. We are very clear that there were two opinions at that time. But when a decision has to be taken between the two opinions, one opinion has to be taken. * Was Rahul Gandhi in favour of opening talks with the TVK? We have to understand that he is part of the consultative process. The Congress president consulted the Leader of the Opposition. Therefore, it is not right for me to comment on those kinds of consultation processes. * Now there is a new situation. The TVK is short of the halfway mark. The Congress has 5 MLAs. Should the Congress support the TVK? The election has given a clear verdict. There was the NDA where Mr Modi, Mr Amit Shah and Palaniswami were together. People have rejected them and they have reduced their numbers. The BJP which had four MLAs has now been reduced to 1. The AIADMK tally has also come down. In my view, people have rejected the entry of hate into Tamil Nadu. We fought in progressive alliance with the DMK, Left parties and others. Our alliance has lost now. The TVK has emerged as the single-largest party, which has also not aligned with the BJP. It has also defeated the BJP and the politics of hate in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, we think that the secular space in Tamil Nadu is back. We should always protect that. The Congress should do whatever it takes to protect the secular space of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, the MLAs have also been consulted. The Congress president has also spoken to all of us. The Congress president and the leadership will take a call. * If the Congress offers support to the TVK, will that mean a rupture in ties with DMK? We are fighting against the BJP and the RSS, ideologically. Our fight is against them. In Kerala, Communists and the Congress fight each other. In West Bengal, the TMC and the Congress fight each other. But we are all together in our fight against the BJP at the national level. Here also in Tamil Nadu, we are seeing a new party which has fought against the BJP. They have not had any kind of understanding with the BJP. Therefore, we are very clear that that kind of secular politics should also be supported by all kinds of forces. Across India, the Congress is fighting against the BJP. Rahul Gandhi is a leader who is fighting against the BJP in every state. We have supported the TMC. The way the election has been stolen by the BJP in Bengal, we have supported the TMC. It is not petty politics. We are very clear that our main ideology is against hate and the hate-based politics of RSS must be stopped. * So, at the national level, the DMK and the Congress can still be part of the INDIA bloc and in the state, it can extend support to the TVK to protect that secular space? The Congress president has to take that call. I was giving you instances of Kerala and Bengal. We have political differences in states, but we fight together at the national level. In Bengal, we have different spaces, but we are together in Delhi . These are all places and states where we fight among ourselves. But like that, in Tamil Nadu also, there is a new party which is also occupying that space. We do not want to suspect that party. We think that the secular space should be protected at any cost and we should not compromise on that ideology.