Days after actor-politician Kamal Haasan offered to join hands with it if it snapped ties with the DMK, the Congress has said the Dravidian major will decide on the contours of the "secular" alliance in Tamil Nadu to oust the BJP from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
There was absolutely no question of joining hands with any other party without the DMK, "a trusted and long-time ally," All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Sanjay Dutt told Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M K Stalin Saturday when he called on him, Congress sources told PTI.
The alliance in the southern state to strengthen the hands of Congress president Rahul Gandhi was being led by Stalin and only he might decide, in consultation with other friendly parties, on whether a particular party like Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) could be a part of it or not, Dutt was quoted as having said.
Dutt, the AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, met Stalin at the latter's residence here, in his second visit in recent times, as part of efforts to further firm up the ties between the two parties ahead of the formal start of negotiations for seat-sharing for next year's Lok Sabha election.
Haasan, who had met Gandhi in June, had recently indicated that he was open to an alliance with the Congress for the general election, while opposing both the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the DMK.
The MNM chief had also expressed the hope that the alliance between the DMK and the Congress might break.
"Let it break slowly," he had said last month, in a clear indication that he was willing to align with the Congress if it exited the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu.
Reacting to it, senior DMK leader Duraimurugan had dubbed Haasan as "politically immature", though mentioning him as his good friend.
On Haasan's rider, a Congress leader said, "Preconditions do not help, nothing is permanent in politics."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content