The Indian National Congress has a habit of shooting itself in the foot.
In state after state, we have seen wrong decisions taken by the party that have reduced it to irrelevance in those regions. In Tamil Nadu, they are already largely an irrelevant party with a less than five percent estimated vote share. Having depended upon one of the two Dravidian parties over the last few decades to get a decent share of seats in the Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu, the Congress has now thrown in its lot with the new kid on the block, the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) of actor Vijay, the party that made a stunning electoral debut this week.
Before the recently concluded elections, there was talk that the Congress would exit a longstanding alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and tie up with the TVK and contest 75 seats in such an alliance.
However, frantic efforts by the old guard within the Congress, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidambaram, and Sonia Gandhi herself, ensured that the alliance with the DMK stayed intact. There was speculation that Rahul Gandhi wanted to go with the TVK but was overruled.