Congress leaders left due to lack of 'winnability': Manickam Tagore

Manickam Tagore asserts Congress leaders left due to their inability to win seats, not due to issues with Rahul Gandhi. He criticizes the BJP for accommodating them as a PR stunt and acknowledges the Congress's declining vote share in Tamil Nadu.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Saturday said that many party leaders have left for other parties due to their lack of "winnability" in their states, taking a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party for having "many empty seats" to take Congress leaders.

In an interview with ANI, Tagore said that senior figures had distanced themselves from the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, dismissing the idea that these exits reflect personal fallout, describing such relationships as largely political rather than personal. "These leaders who wanted to show that they are very close to Rahul Gandhi ji, wherever the camera was, they were able to see that thing. Then they are all powerful people in Delhi...Rahul Gandhi's friendship with these people are only political relationship. And they went because they were not having winnability in their seats. They all left because they are not able to win their seats," said Tagore, referring to electoral setbacks in the 2019 and 2024 general elections. Recently, in poll-bound Assam, party's former state president Bhupen Borah, and sitting MP Pradyut Bordoloi left the party and joined the BJP, citing discontent with the Congress.

'BJP accommodating them to create an impression'

Tagore claimed the BJP "accomodating" several former Congress leaders was a calculated PR stunt, designed to create a narrative that even "people who are close to Rahul Gandhi" are leaving the party. "They were only Delhi-centric people. They were all Greater Kailash, all other people only. They were living in Delhi. They are fighting elections in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and other states. They all went to other parties and others. BJP is a party which is full of empty chairs. They were there accommodating them, thinking that they are going to create an impression that those people who are close to Rahul Gandhi has left it," said Tagore.

"The real story is that Rahul Gandhi's friends are those people who are common people, and Rahul Gandhi cares for them. And Rahul Gandhi always thinks that his friendship and his relationship with personal political people continues in many level," he added.

Congress' decline in Tamil Nadu

Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore also acknowledged the party's decline in Tamil Nadu. "We were having a 20 per cent (vote share of) party. And we have come down to around 5 per cent... We have lost our ground and we understand that," Tagore said, highlighting the party's shrinking vote share over decades.

'1996 decision had a huge impact on Congress'

He also traced the party's weakening stance in Tamil Nadu due to past decisions, including the 1996 alliance choices under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. While being AICC president, Rao had allied the party with AIADMK for the polls at that point. "That decision of Mr Narasimha Rao in 1996 had a huge impact on Congress because TMC (Tamil Manila Congress) went out and TMC took the Congress votes from, it brought out, it took 12 percentage, 15 percentage vote, and when they returned back, they came back with only 5 percentage," Tagore explained.

Tamil Manila Congress was founded by former Rajya Sabha MP GK Moopanar in 1996, Furthermore, Tagore said the Congress must reclaim its ideological space to counter the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

'Whenever we lack, the BJP gains'

He said, "Whenever we lack, the BJP gains. That is the problem with the Congress and the BJP because Congress traditionally has been a player in Indian national politics, occupying that space in Tamil Nadu, and wherever we were just got diverted or became muted in that issues, the BJP picks up." (ANI)

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