Overview
- Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister S. Rajesh Kumar warned on Sunday that he and the other Congress minister would resign if TVK did not accept Rahul Gandhi as the Congress’s 2029 prime ministerial candidate.
- A recent India Today–CVoter survey that placed Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay third in preferred PM choices has helped fuel posters and social‑media reels promoting a 'Vijay for PM' pitch inside and beyond Tamil Nadu.
- Several TVK ministers publicly praised Vijay and declined to rule out projecting him for 2029, but the party has not issued a formal decision naming him the alliance’s national face.
- Congress leaders met Vijay at the Secretariat on Monday for talks intended to cool tensions, while allied figures such as MDMK’s Vaiko publicly reaffirmed Rahul Gandhi as the INDIA bloc’s choice.
- The Congress’s five MLAs and two cabinet berths give it leverage over the TVK government’s narrow majority, so the dispute over messaging could prompt a cabinet exit, a change in seat arrangements, or a formal pact over national leadership ahead of 2029.