More than three weeks after polling for the 39 parliamentary seats in Tamil Nadu ended, State Congress chief K. Selvaperunthagai called upon party cadres to strive to “recapture power” in order to gain political “respect” from the DMK, the leader of the alliance of which it is a part in the State.
The Congress’s allies are bewildered by this sudden appeal given that the party made serious efforts to challenge the principal Dravidian parties, the DMK and AIADMK, only once in 1989 after losing power in 1967 in the State. A decade ago, when the Congress decided to fight the Lok Sabha elections alone, it polled just 4.37% of the votes. Since then, it has been a junior partner in the DMK-led alliance, notwithstanding the BJP’s attempts to expand its base.
In independent India, the Congress was the ruling party in Tamil Nadu between 1952 and 1967. After its loss in the 1967 Assembly elections to the DMK, it became the main Opposition party. When the AIADMK emerged as a force in Tamil Nadu politics, the Congress slipped further to become a dominant third party securing close to 20% of the vote share. Today, it is fighting to preserve its shell. The party which contested the 1980 Assembly elections from 114 seats, two more than the DMK in the same alliance, is now forced to settle for significantly fewer seats given its depleted strength, except in a few pockets. Ideologically diverse parties such as the Naam Tamilar Katchi, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and the Pattali Makkal Katchi have emerged over time and enjoy influence in pockets across some regions. They have steadily chipped away at the Congress’s base, forcing it to depend on the Dravidian majors.
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