Chennai, Sept 1:
The change in the seating arrangement of Congress MLA Tharahai Cuthbert in the Tamil Nadu Assembly triggered political speculation on Monday amid a growing debate over the possible Prime Ministerial face of the Congress-TVK alliance, prompting the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee to clarify that the move was purely administrative.
Cuthbert, who represents the Colachel Assembly constituency in Kanniyakumari district, was recently appointed Congress Legislature Party Leader. Following her appointment, she was moved from the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) benches to the front row along with leaders of other Opposition parties.
The change came a day after Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister S Rajesh Kumar said Congress Ministers would leave the State Cabinet if TVK did not accept Rahul Gandhi as the alliance’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2029 Lok Sabha election.
The remarks came amid statements from some TVK leaders projecting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay as a possible national political contender. Senior TVK leader and PWD Minister Aadhav Arjuna had earlier said that the country’s highest constitutional office should be occupied by a leader from Tamil Nadu.
A private media survey that placed Vijay among the preferred candidates for Prime Minister in 2029, behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, further fuelled the debate.
However, TNCC president and Lok Sabha MP B Manickam Tagore sought to dismiss speculation over the Assembly seating arrangement.
He said the seating had been rearranged following the appointment of a new Congress Legislature Party Leader and that the two Congress Ministers had also been allotted front-row seats in accordance with the seating arrangements for leaders of alliance legislature parties.
Tagore said there was no political significance to the change and urged party workers and the public not to create political interpretations around a routine administrative decision.
He also used a short fable involving a jackal, lion and elephant to caution against reading too much into opinion surveys. Drawing an analogy with the recent survey, Tagore said numbers presented as the “voice of the people” could sometimes be used as a political weapon to create mistrust between allies.
“The biggest victory of a fake survey is not about believing it, but doubting your friend by believing it,” he said, indicating that the Congress-TVK relationship remained intact.
The episode comes at a politically sensitive time for the ruling alliance, with competing narratives emerging over leadership and the 2029 Lok Sabha election even as Congress remains part of the TVK government.