By IANS,
Chennai : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi reiterated here Thursday that the party’s alliance with DMK was intact and described all speculation to the contrary a figment of the imagination.
Winding up a series of meetings with Youth Congress workers in Tamil Nadu, Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference that the election process in the youth wing of the party was designed to attract young people and he was “impressed by the overwhelming response the Youth Congress is getting in the state”.
“The Youth Congress is opening its doors to young energy. The route map for our party to come to power is to go near the people and raise issues affecting them,” said the general secretary who is in charge of the Congress’ youth wing.
But Rahul Gandhi dismissed repeated questions from the media about the Congress going it alone in Tamil Nadu as it had done in Uttar Pradesh in the last general elections. The Congress and the DMK for the ruling combine in the state and are part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the centre.
“I am one of the architects of the Uttar Pradesh formula,” Rahul Gandhi replied. “The parliamentary election performance was okay for the party. Each state is different. Uttar Pradesh has a particular balance and a particular politics. We did discuss an alliance with the Samajwadi Party but decided to go alone. But it is a shallow idea to apply the Uttar Pradesh formula across the country.”
Again asked why he had not met DMK supremo and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi during his current trip to Tamil Nadu, Rahul Gandhi pointed out: “I did not meet Karunanidhi-ji during my last two trips here either. But that has not had any effect on our alliance.”
On the question of who could join the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi said: “The party has an open system. Anybody can join provided he does not hold extreme views on religion and he is not a criminal.”
Rahul Gandhi also faced repeated questions on the harassment of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy and about the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, but stoutly maintained that India had acted for the safety of Tamils by sending senior government ministers and officials to Colombo to take up the issue.