DMK confident of alliance with Congress | Powertrip #133

Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers. This week’s edition is by Shabbir Ahmed, Nandini Chandrashekar, and Nidheesh MK.In our first story in this edition, we report on the tensions escalating in the DMK-Congress alliance in Tamil Nadu over power sharing. Meanwhile, politics is being reflected in the Tamil film industry as well, with a proxy war between Vijay’s ‘Jana Nayagan’ and DMK-linked movie ‘Parasakthi’, both Pongal releases.A government inquiry into two state-run institutions in north Karnataka could land a few top bureaucrats of the state in trouble.Prodigal MP Shashi Tharoor seems back in the Congress fold in Kerala. The party seems to have converted him into a campaign asset, with the promise of a Delhi role.Read the full newsletter for all the details. For those who can’t access the full newsletter, get a subscription and read every Tuesday..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only.DMK leadership confident nothing can rock the boat Over the past two weeks, tensions have escalated between the Congress and the DMK, with a handful of Congress leaders making it clear that they are unhappy with the alliance unless the DMK agrees to share power. The DMK leadership, however, says it is confident that these differences will not rock the boat or break the alliance.Though the tension is expected to increase further in the coming weeks as the number of seats have to be finalised, a top DMK leader told us that they don’t believe the alliance will face any real trouble. One of the Congress leaders who has been striking a chord of dissonance however insisted that the alliance is in jeopardy if the DMK does not agree to share power. But this does not seem to be the sentiment cutting across Congress leaders in the state, with many of the opinion that the alliance must continue no matter what..A ‘fraud’ government Society in Karnataka and missing Rs 300 croreThree inquiries in the last two years. That is how much the Congress-led Karnataka government has invested in fishing out corruption in two institutions situated in north Karnataka, spanning seven districts of the Hyderabad Karnataka region. We hear that the report could land a few top bureaucrats of the state in trouble. Hundreds of crores were poured into the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) and the Kalyana Karnataka Human Resource, Agriculture and Cultural Society (KKHRAC Society). Both institutions are located in Kalaburagi.The latest inquiry conducted by retired IAS officer Sudhir Kumar is very critical of the KKHRAC Society, helmed for three years by Basavaraj Patil Sedam, a former BJP MP and lifelong RSS man. Both institutions have faced numerous allegations about misutilisation of money, especially the Society, which is accused of spending around Rs 300 crore over three years.It was the present Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, son of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, who has pushed for inquiries. The jurisdiction of these two institutions also covers Chittapur in Kalaburagi district, which is Priyank’s constituency. Unhappy with the earlier two inquiries, headed by different IAS officers and their teams, Priyank pushed for another inquiry, which is when a retired IAS officer was enlisted. The Sudhir Kumar report submitted to the government in September 2025 is a scathing indictment of how these institutions were run. It accused the KKHRAC Society of “running a parallel government, devoid of any governmental controls, checks and balances.”Going by the report, very little of the money was used for government schemes. And it was an open secret that it was being diverted to NGOs with BJP/RSS leanings and towards prepping for Assembly elections. Also complicit in all the illegalities was a KAS officer.It has been more than three months since this meticulous and detailed report was submitted, and the government has not uttered a word about it. One reason for it could be how the report, without naming the person, lays a lot of blame on a bureaucrat who is also the Chief Secretary today.TNM will be publishing a detailed report shortly on the fraud perpetrated by the Society..Jana Nayagan vs Parasakthi: TN theatre owners under pressureAhead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, politics is heating up in the state, and this is increasingly being reflected in the Tamil film industry as well. The proxy war between Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief and actor-turned-politician Vijay’s last film Jana Nayagan and Parasakthi, produced by Dawn Pictures, which is linked to the DMK’s first family, has become the talk of tinsel town this Pongal season.Caught in the crossfire are theatre owners, as distributors from both sides are demanding more screens. However, theatre owners are inclined towards Jana Nayagan, Vijay’s final film, which has generated massive expectations following his taking the political plunge. At the same time, Parasakthi, which recalls the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s, is also competing to secure a larger share of screens.An industry insider told TNM that out of 1,964 screens across Tamil Nadu, spanning small, medium, and large theatres, there is pressure to allocate an equal number of screens to both films. Typically, when films starring big actors are released simultaneously, screens are divided based on the popularity of the actor and the scale of business the film is expected to generate.Since this is Vijay’s last film, theatre owners expect a huge footfall and want to showcase it prominently. At the same time, distributors of Parasakthi are pressing for equal attention to ensure proper distribution and collections.Meanwhile, anxiety has gripped the makers of Jana Nayagan and Vijay’s fans over the Censor Board’s clearance. According to sources, Censor Board officials had earlier indicated that the film would receive a U/A certificate, but at the last minute it was sent to a revising committee. This followed a complaint by an unknown person who had not seen the film, alleging that certain scenes could hurt religious sentiments. The makers of Jana Nayagan have clarified that there are no religious scenes in the film and view the Censor Board’s move as an attempt to delay the release process.This development also comes at a time when Vijay has been summoned by the CBI to Delhi in connection with the Karur stampede case. Second-rung leaders of the TVK believe that this is not a coincidence and see it as a deliberate attempt to mount pressure on their leader..Has Congress struck a Tharoor truce?One of the defining images from the Congress strategy meet in Wayanad, held over the last weekend to discuss the campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls in Kerala, is Shashi Tharoor, beaming, photographed alongside KC Venugopal, VD Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala, and Sunny Joseph. The prodigal MP is back in the family portrait.For a party that spent years unsure what to do with its most recognisable Kerala face, this is a detente. It may not, however, be a buried hatchet. Tharoor’s presidential run against Mallikarjun Kharge, his freelancing on party matters, the barely concealed mutual wariness with the state unit: none of that has passed. But there’s now an understanding.According to a New Indian Express report, Tharoor will be given a Delhi role if UDF wins Kerala, with a Cabinet rank, sort of an ambassador-of-Kerala positioning. This mirrors how the LDF accommodated KV Thomas after his Congress defection, a face-saving perch that keeps a big name invested without disrupting state-level hierarchies. For Tharoor, it’s a path that doesn’t require contesting an Assembly seat or navigating KPCC factional minefields. For the party, it converts a potential irritant into a campaign asset.And asset he will be. Potential candidates are already reaching out for campaign stops. Tharoor fills halls, generates English-media coverage, and appeals to the urban professional voter who finds at least some of the conventional Congress rhetoric stale. But he also draws crowds among traditional voters who simply enjoy watching a global-tier orator speak in Malayalam. The party needs him on stage in urban centres like Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Thrissur, instead of sulking on the margins. For the moment, it seems he agrees.So the question now shifts from whether Tharoor will campaign to how long this peace will hold. His MP office in Thiruvananthapuram has reportedly not been functioning the way you’d expect from someone seeking re-election, signalling that he may not contest another Lok Sabha term. This changes the calculus. If reports of the Delhi position is true, this election campaign could be a valedictory tour for him. But what comes after that? 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DMK confident of alliance with Congress | Powertrip #133

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