Published Jun 19, 2026 | 6:05 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 19, 2026 | 6:05 PM
MK Stalin and Rahul Gandhi.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and the Opposition DMK leader MK Stalin extended birthday greetings to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 19 June.
The wording and tone of the two greetings reflected the realignment in Tamil Nadu politics over the past year.
“Warm birthday wishes to my dear brother, Thiru Rahul Gandhi, Hon’ble Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. I wish you good health and a long life as you continue to raise your voice for the nation’s progress, the preservation of democratic values and the welfare of people from all walks of life,” Vijay said on X.
“May all your endeavours meet with success and may you continue to serve with distinction in public life,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister’s message conveyed the newfound camaraderie between the TVK and Congress. The greeting was long, compared to that of Stalin’s cryptic note, which looked more formal than a message with inherent warmth.
“Birthday greetings to Hon’ble Leader of Opposition Thiru. @RahulGandhi. Wishing you good health and happiness,” Stalin greeted his INDIA bloc partner on X.
What stood out in the two messages was Vijay’s use of the term “brother”.
The story was different exactly a year ago. Gandhi was then Stalin’s “brother in ideals”.
Also Read: Why the bad blood between Rahul Gandhi and MK Stalin?
Greeting him on 19 June 2025, Stalin termed Gandhi “my brother in ideals, bound not by blood, but by thought, vision, and purpose. May you continue to stand firm and lead with courage. In our march towards a brighter India, victory shall be ours.”
The previous message was personal, resplendent with warmth, hope and affection. The latest was professional, apparently for courtesy’s sake, as if from an estranged partner who had been cheated behind his back, seemingly for public consumption.
Stalin’s previous message and the latest spoke volumes about Tamil Nadu politics, the realignment of the Congress, and the DMK left to battle it alone in the changed scenario where TVK had bulldozed its way to the forefront and power.
Congress had been DMK’s partner until 10 May, when the election result gave no party the required majority to form a government. The TVK, with 108 seats, emerged as the single-largest party, yet fell 10 short of the required 118 MLAs in the 234-member Assembly. The Congress party, with five MLAs, extended support to TVK, catching Stalin off guard.
After Congress pledged support to TVK, other DMK partners, the two Left parties — the CPI(M) and CPI — VCK and the IUML, too, followed suit, marking the beginning of an era of coalition rule in Tamil Nadu. Further, it also led to a revolt in AIADMK, as five MLAs resigned and four of them joined Vijay’s nascent outfit.
The shift in Tamil Nadu’s political contour was reflected at the national level as DMK skipped the INDIA bloc meeting on 8 June. The DMK, however, clarified that it would stand by the Opposition INDIA bloc in the fight against the BJP.
The pro-Dravidian party’s absence from the 8 June indicated the growing distance between the DMK and Congress, two parties that were not long ago, “brothers in ideals, bound by thought, vision and purpose”.
DMK’s clarification that it would oppose the BJP along with the INDIA bloc revealed that though not “brothers” any more, the shared “thought, vision and purpose” were still intact, despite the political shakeup in Tamil Nadu. Gandhi, apparently, noticed the underlying thought and extended an olive branch in a patch-up bid.
Thanking Stalin for the “warm” birthday wishes, the now-56-year-old Congress leader made an apparent overture at the DMK, echoing Stalin’s year-ago message’s optimism that “victory shall be ours” .
“Our shared resolve to defend the idea of India, our Constitution, and federalism will continue to guide us – this is the fight for the very soul of our democracy, and we will wage it together, until we win,” Gandhi replied on X.
Will Stalin accept the olive branch Gandhi has extended? Well, all is fair in love, war — and politics too!
Thank you, Thiru M.K. Stalin, for your warm wishes.
Our shared resolve to defend the idea of India, our Constitution, and federalism will continue to guide us – this is the fight for the very soul of our democracy, and we will wage it together, until we win. https://t.co/h43cMW6emG
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 19, 2026
