Confident that Vijay will accept Rahul as Prime Ministerial candi

Manickam Tagore says Tamil Nadu Congress will project Rahul Gandhi for 2029 Lok Sabha polls

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president B. Manickam Tagore has said he is “100% confident” that TVK leader and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay will support Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the INDIA bloc’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Tagore said he expected Mr. Vijay to make such an announcement ahead of the parliamentary election.

TVK slogans and Rahul Gandhi projection

Mr. Tagore was responding to a question on TVK’s second line leaders having already projected Mr. Vijay as the “future Prime Minister”.

He said those slogans were no longer being raised and described them as the personal wishes of a few people in the party.

“A few people in the party were expressing their personal wish. They are not talking about it now. When the elections arrive, the TVK chief will announce who they are supporting. The Tamil Nadu Congress will contest the elections projecting Rahul Gandhi, and I am 100% confident that Mr. Vijay will support it,” Mr. Tagore said.

His remarks place the Tamil Nadu Congress position clearly around Rahul Gandhi for the next Lok Sabha polls, while also suggesting that TVK’s formal stand will be announced closer to the election.

DMK exit and third front question

Mr. Tagore also said the DMK, which exited the INDIA bloc after the Congress joined the TVK-led Ministry post-Assembly polls, would not win in the Lok Sabha elections even if it formed a national-level third front.

He compared the present situation to the 2014 election, asking how many seats the DMK had won when it contested alone.

“Didn’t they contest alone in 2014? How many seats did they win? The exact same thing will happen now. They talk about forming a third front; their wish will be fulfilled in the by-elections: they will only get the third place,” he said.

According to Mr. Tagore, the DMK’s exit has not weakened the Opposition at the national level.

He said claims that the Opposition would not be able to achieve anything during the parliamentary session had been disproved.

“People claimed that the Opposition wouldn’t be able to achieve anything during this parliamentary session. Yet, we did not let the session run. As far as we are concerned, all 23 members of the INDIA bloc remain ideologically united,” Mr. Tagore said.

He also said movements such as the Cockroach Janata Party might exist as a phenomena for sometime, but he considered the chances of a real third front emerging to be slim.

BJP, TVK and protest politics

Mr. Tagore alleged that the BJP manufactured stories about third fronts purely to split Opposition votes.

Asked whether TVK would be aggressive in taking on the BJP, he described TVK as a young party and pointed to its position on issues such as delimitation.

“TVK is a young party. As far as they are concerned, they stand with us on issues like delimitation. Furthermore, in Tamil Nadu, there is a Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance. Whenever the BJP acts against Tamil Nadu, this alliance will collectively decide the course of action,” he said.

He added, “I am confident they will stand with us on the protest ground.”

When questioned about TVK’s silence on several national issues, Mr. Tagore defended the party’s approach by saying every party had its own style.

“Everyone has their own style. You cannot expect someone to prove themselves every single day or issue press statements daily,” he said.

The interview was published on September 25, 2026, at 01:45 am IST.

Source: The Hindu