Kanyakumari: Amidst TVK propaganda projecting chief minister C Joseph Vijay as a prospective prime minister, Congress leader and Tamil Nadu tourism minister S Rajesh Kumar on Sunday said he would quit the cabinet if TVK refuses to accept Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.“Rahul Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate for the 2029 parliamentary election. He will become the next PM. If at all TVK refuses to accept this, the two Congress ministers will walk out of the cabinet,” Rajesh Kumar said on Sunday at the swearing in ceremony of George Robinson as Congress party’s Kanyakumari West district unit president. “For us, party is above all other considerations. Our cadres want to see Rahul Gandhi as PM. Our goal is to achieve that,’’ he said.The remark comes against the backdrop of repeated attempts by TVK leaders to project chief minister C Joseph Vijay as a potential prime ministerial face from Tamil Nadu in 2029.The issue was first raised by PWD minister Aadhav Arjuna during a debate on delimitation exercise when he said a Prime Minister should emerge from Tamil Nadu. His remarks were followed by other TVK ministers, including D Sarathkumar, A Srinath and K Jagadeeswari, projecting Vijay as a possible prime ministerial candidate.The debate gained traction nationally after a private media house said their survey has found Vijay was the third most preferred prime ministerial choice in the country, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi.The statements by TVK leaders sparked unease among the Congress rank and file. When asked about the issue, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore took a swipe at TVK ministers, saying they were still functioning with a “fan club mindset.”Rajesh Kumar’s warning, however, marks an escalation of the disagreement. The support of five MLAs of Congress remains crucial for TVK to enjoy the majority mark in the state assembly. In return, TVK has given two ministerial berths to Congress leaders Rajesh Kumar and P Viswanathan, the higher education minister. Earlier in the day, when asked how many prime ministerial candidates were there in the TVK-led alliance, Viswanathan said at Trichy airport that Rahul Gandhi is the sole prime ministerial candidate of Indian National Congress, and there would be no change in the stand.
