Congress's Last-Minute Outreach to Allies in Tamil Nadu: A Bargaining Power Conundrum

Given that the next round of assembly polls are not too far away where does the Congress stand via a vis its allies? If the negotiations in Tamil Nadu are to go by then the Congress seems torn between its desire to resurrect the party in the state versus doing what is best to defeat the BJP. The demand for a power share in the Tamil Nad government has not gone down well with its Dravidian ally nor has the frantic flirting with DMK’s rival the actor turned politician Vijay. If the Congress thought that this could be a bargaining tactic, it left the decision to the very last minute. Election are but six weeks away. The reach out to the TVK has confused the party allies who do not know whether they are to applaud the DMK or criticise it. Which side are they finally going to be on? The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’ recent push for the women voters where he deposited Rs5000 in each one’s account has been welcomed by the public. But should the Congress partake in the goodwill or should it join DMK’s detractors in scoffing this as a last minute push ? Finally given the rounds of talks between KC Venugopal, Congress General Secretary Organisation and MK Stalin, it does seem that the Congress has decided to go with the DMK. But has it eroded its bargaining power? The DMK has not been sitting idle while the Congress has been shopping around. It has enlisted other allies thereby shrinking the number of seats it can give away to the Congress. The DMK also remains firm on its power sharing decision, ie it will not share power with a national party in the state. And it has not outright agreed to accommodate the Congress party’s recent demand to give a Rajya Sabha seat to Pawan KHera. (The Congress 17 votes and will need another 17 from the DMK to get its candidate through). Hence what has the Congress gained with its last minute reach out to the TVK? It did the same `bargaining’ with the RJD in Bihar. And though the RJD gave it a larger number of seats than the previous assembly polls they were not winning seats. The Congress fared miserably in the Bihar polls leading other INDIA bloc allies to wonder whether giving seats to the Congress was akin to wasting them. No doubt SP Chief and former CM Akhilesh Yadav is making the same calculations in Uttar Pradesh. In West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has refused any tie up with the Congress.