Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be in Chennai on February 28 to launch a book authored by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief, M.K. Stalin, on the latter’s political journey, a source said on Friday.
During his trip, Mr. Gandhi would also interact with the newly-elected Congress members of civic bodies.
There is a clear political message in the timing of Mr. Gandhi’s visit - it comes barely two weeks after Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached out to her Tamil Nadu counterpart as well as the Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekhar Rao or KCR, to forge a front of regional parties against the BJP.
KCR’s initiative
While Ms. Banerjee asserted that the Congress could go on its own way, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief, KCR, followed up on the issue of forming a front of like-minded regional parties by calling Janata Dal-Secular patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray.
“Mr. Stalin’s book launch comes just before his birthday and it certainly sends a signal,” said a Congress leader familiar with the developments. “Be it the Rashtriya Janata Dal [RJD] or the DMK, they know that the Congress has a certain vote share in every State and their leaders have a comfortable relationship with our national leadership even though they may issues in States,” he added.
However, the Congress’s relationship with its existing allies and other regional parties in the coming days is likely to be shaped by the party’s performance in the five Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.
