As he wound up a three-day trip to arguably the heartland of identity politics, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi seemed to have made many new friends, but also rubbed some influential ones the wrong way.

Rahul’s decision not to call on senior alliance partner and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi caused heart-burn among DMK cadres — a feeling that the Gandhi scion tried to assuage on Thursday morning during his only formal interaction with the media.

“I have great respect for Karunanidhi... I am here to work for the Youth Congress... I don’t think I am the right person to talk about the alliance,” Rahul said, in a safe reply to a barrage of questions on his decision to stay away from the DMK camp during the Tamil Nadu tour.

Having further rattled the DMK with his “vision” of capturing power alone in Tamil Nadu, the Congress leader also emphasised that the “UP formula (of going alone)” was not replicable in the state or elsewhere. Rahul is credited with having turned around the party’s fortunes in Uttar Pradesh with this move.

Regional leaders have been urging the high command to revitalise the party apparatus in Tamil Nadu, with its 39 Lok Sabha seats , a lucrative chunk. The state Congress unit is particularly peeved at the DMK for stonewalling its demand to share power since 2006, a move that Karunanidhi has been stalling using his proximity to the Congress high command.

Much, therefore, is being read into Rahul’s move to stay away from the DMK during the Tamil Nadu trip. Calling it “nothing surprising”, a senior Congress leader said: “We do have an alliance but we have different political courses as well. There should be coordination at the administrative level — between Cabinet colleagues and governments — but not necessarily at the political level.”

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