Tamil Nadu, political observers in New Delhi have noticed a significant shift in the party’s attitude towards its alliance partner, the DMK in the state and the Centre after Sonia Gandhi’s successful Congress rally in Tiruchi last week.

The Congress is hand in glove with Rahul Gandhi’s political prescription of going it alone like in Bihar and later in Uttar Pradesh, to test its strength as well as prepare the ground for establishing a single party majority at the Centre.

This is also confirmed after Sonia made a specific and pointed reference to its cadre to strengthen the party at the grassroots level for a strong revival of the Congress which has not tasted power for long in TN. The Congress which has always been fighting in alliance with either the DMK or the AIADMK had been reduced to playing a second fiddle not matching with its stature as a national party with country-wide reach.

The DMK which claims to be in though claiming to be in alliance with the Congress has been ignoring the Congress cries to share power in TN but cunningly enjoying plum portfolios at the Centre and occasionally even resorting to political blackmail for extending support to the Manmohan Singh government.

Now the latest talk in Congress circles is that the party should assert itself and demand at least 100 seats in the assembly polls next year. Word in the Congress circle is that Home Minister P. Chidambaram is ready to demand Deputy Chief Minister position if it comes to power in alliance with the DMK.

Observers had even noted that Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not show her usual warmth when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi met her on Saturday.

Contrary to the friendliness evident in previous meetings between Karunanidhi and Sonia Gandhi the Congress President the meeting between the two leaders was a cool affair in the VVIP lounge at Meenambakkam airport.

This surprised many people, since the ageing Karunanidhi had travelled all the way to the airport to receive Gandhi. It was learnt that Karunanidhi had invited her home for a meal, but Sonia expressed her inability to visit him. That’s when Karunanidhi decided to have a brief meeting in the airport. He wanted to discuss important matters, including the 2G spectrum issue. However, that was not to be as Sonia who met him, received the bouquet and excused herself saying she was short of time due to various programmes in Delhi. Then, she quickly left the VVIP lounge to get into a helicopter.

What happened at Tiruchi was also another shocker. Sonia said that the Congress must become a party of the future. “We are in alliance [with DMK] and we respect it. But we must work to become the party of the future.” This was a clear signal that Sonia sent the DMK.

IT is quite clear that the days of the DMK acting bossy with the Congress are over and it has to make it clear in the beginning itself the ground rules for the alliance.