The Congress party is facing a wave of resignations in Tamil Nadu following its decision to back C Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). Senior Congress leaders criticised the move, calling it a “betrayal” of allies and party workers.
Among those who resigned are Dhayaanath Karthick MB, former state secretary of the Tamil Nadu unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and Pranesh Balaaji MB, a member of the All India Professional Congress (AIPC).
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam sought Congress’s support to form the government after falling short of the 118 seats needed for a majority. The party won 108 seats in the 2026 Assembly elections, while Congress won 5 of the 28 seats it contested. On Wednesday, May 6, Congress extended conditional support to TVK for government formation.
Announcing his resignation, Dhayaanath said, “The party's decision to sever ties with the DMK is a gross violation of alliance dharma… To turn our backs on this mandate and ally with TVK for sheer opportunistic power-grabbing proves that the Congress is taking the voters of Tamil Nadu for a ride.”
He described the internal functioning of the NSUI as “suffocating and toxic,” and alleged that the appointment of cadres to office-bearer positions was being influenced by money rather than merit, despite multiple complaints being raised with the central committee. “When a party's high command completely abandons its grievance redressal mechanism, it leaves honest workers with no choice but to walk away,” he said.
Claiming that an organisation that auctioned its ideology for short-term power had already written its own political obituary, Karthick said he refused to “go down on a sinking ship built on greed and betrayal,” and wished Congress its “inevitable political downfall.”
Pranesh Balaaji MB, a member of the All India Professional Congress (AIPC), issued a similar statement, accusing the Congress of “backstabbing the DMK — the one steadfast ally.” He described the DMK as “the one party that stood unconditionally by the INDIA bloc and the Congress” and said the decision was one he could not “comprehend, excuse or accept.”
Pranesh described the bond between DMK president MK Stalin and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as “brotherly” and called the abandonment of this relationship the purest form of betrayal. “When the hand that shook in friendship decides to strike in opportunism, it destroys the very foundation of trust,” he said, as he requested the immediate removal of his name from the membership registry.
