The Congress party’s role in the DMK-led alliance for Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is under the spotlight. Praveen Chakravarty, a Congress leader, said the party contributes around 10% to 12% value to the coalition. Yet, looking at past election data from 2004 onward, Congress mostly polls less than DMK in overall and contested-seat vote shares. The only exception was the 2004 election, when Congress' vote share in seats it contested was just 1.1 percentage points higher than DMK’s. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress trailed DMK by less than one percentage point in contested seats. Usually, the gap is wider, from about 2 to 6.5 points. This close vote share gap suggests all alliance members benefit equally from the partnership. If any party performed much better, it would show stronger influence. That’s not the case for Congress. In 2014, when Congress was unpopular, it contested all 39 Tamil Nadu seats but won none, with just 4.31% vote share. The party did better in southern districts, scoring 8.2%, and came second only in Kanniyakumari. Elsewhere, it lost deposits. This data highlights Congress’ challenge to match DMK’s strength in Tamil Nadu politics despite alliance talks.