Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion halted Vijay’s Congress entry

TAmil Nadu’s vainglorious political disruptor and its next chief government minister C chief joseph Vijay, break known by the mononym Vijay, was keen to fall in the Congress in 2009 but then general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion that he prove himself by contesting the Youth Congress election, sent him back to Chennai with his political aspirations on the backburner. HT learns that Vijay and his father SA Chandrasekhar came to Delhi accompanied by Congress’ national secretary Gopinath Palaniyappan.“I cannot talk about it,’’ said Palaniyappan who was national secretary of the Congress’ National Students Union of India(NSUI) at the time, when contacted by HT. The United Progressive Alliance(UPA) had just been voted back to power with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and Gandhi was being pushed to take on a larger role in government. However, he seemed reluctant; and he was happy in the role that he had -- to revamp Congress’ student wings, the Youth Congress and NSUI.A person familiar with the details told HT that Vijay’s pitch to Gandhi was to just become an AICC member. “He didn’t want a ticket or anything else. He just wanted to become a member of the Congress party,’’ said this leader, on condition of anonymity. He said that Vijay’s father was inclined more towards the Congress’ ideology and had played a role in the decision. 17 years later, on counting day on Monday, as TVK was trying to make up its numbers inch towards the halfway mark of 118, Chandrasekhar’s message to the Congress was, “Ally with Vijay, he will give you the power you lost.”Vijay’s simple demand to join Congress took on a different turn when Gandhi and he had this secret meeting in 2009. Gandhi’s zeal to recruit big talent for the student bodies didn’t appeal to Vijay as much. Some feel that even then, Congress’ ally DMK, discouraged this induction. So instead of the Congress signing up a major movie star with millions of fans, the two went their separate ways. Vijay was only 34 then but he was just short of doing his 50th film, and tremendously successful. Gandhi and Vijay, however, did keep in touch, according to a an aide of the former.“Good for Vijay that he didn’t join us in 2009. He would have been lost in the party now instead of being what he is,’’ added this aide.On Thursday, the Congress’ Ragini Nayak who interacted with Vijay in 2009, retweeted a picture from that time, which also had Congress MP Hibi Eden who was heading NSUI and Gopinath Palaniyappan.“Those devotees who are lamenting how the alliance between Congress and Vijay could happen so suddenly...They should take a close look at this picture. This is a 12-13 year old photo in which Vijay Thalapathy is standing shoulder to shoulder with the then national office-bearers of NSUI!”HT reached out to the Congress’ Pawan Khera for comment about what happened, but didn’t get any till the time of going to print.