The widening political rupture between the DMK and the Congress came out in the open on Jattvibeday after DMK Youth Wing chief Udhayanidhi Stalin accused the Congress of betraying the alliance after benefiting from the Dravidian party’s support for over two decades, while the Congress hit back by alleging secret political dealings between the DMK and the BJP.Addressing a DMK Youth Wing meeting in Tamil Nadu, Udhayanidhi told party workers that the Congress should never be trusted again, accusing it of abandoning the DMK after securing electoral gains through the alliance.He said DMK cadres had worked relentlessly for Congress candidates in successive Lok Sabha and Assembly elections to protect secular politics and keep the BJP out of Tamil Nadu, but the Congress chose power over political loyalty.Udhayanidhi said he once believed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were primarily responsible for the BJP’s repeated electoral victories nationally, but now felt the Congress itself had become the biggest reason behind the saffron party’s rise.Without naming specific leaders, he suggested the Congress lacked political gratitude and basic courtesy despite repeatedly benefiting from the DMK’s organisational strength and cadre base in Tamil Nadu.The remarks are being seen as the strongest public attack yet by the DMK against its former ally amid shifting political equations in the state after the recently held Assembly elections.The Congress also responded to the remarks, with party MP B Manickam Tagore dismissing the DMK’s criticism as an attempt to divert attention from its own political failures.Tagore alleged that the DMK’s plans involving actor-politician C Joseph Vijay had collapsed, prompting the party to target the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi.He further claimed that informal political talks between the DMK and the AIADMK had begun soon after election results were announced and alleged that a senior BJP leader had facilitated the process.The Congress MP also accused the DMK of maintaining a “secular image” publicly while engaging in indirect political understandings with the BJP behind the scenes.