Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay this week expected to travel to Delhi to take part in the formal launch of Sonia Gandhi’s memoir. The event is scheduled for November 16.
Congress sources confirmed that Vijay received a personal invitation from Sonia Gandhi herself. Rahul Gandhi also spoke to him over the phone to extend the invitation and request his presence. The book is titled Belonging: A Journey of Love. It was released in bookstores on November 10, and the formal launch function in the capital is meant to mark the occasion properly with allies and senior leaders present.
This will be only the second time the two have met since Vijay became Chief Minister in May this year. His Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam had fought the assembly elections on its own and finished with 108 seats, ten short of a majority. Congress then extended support with its five MLAs, helping him form the government. In June, Vijay had visited Delhi for the NITI Aayog governing council meeting. During that trip he called on both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. So this book launch will be a continuation of that relationship.
The timing of the visit is drawing some extra attention because of the Mekedatu dam issue. Karnataka’s Congress government wants to go ahead with the project on the Cauvery, while Tamil Nadu under Vijay has been strongly opposing it. Vijay has already written to the Prime Minister asking that no clearances be given without the consent of the lower riparian state. The Congress unit in Tamil Nadu is backing the Chief Minister’s stand, even though their own party is in power in Karnataka. That has created an unusual situation where the same party is on opposite sides of a water dispute.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, especially the DMK, have been demanding that the state government organise an all-party meeting and take a strong delegation of MPs and MLAs to meet the Prime Minister on the Mekedatu issue. Some leaders are hoping Vijay will use the Delhi visit to raise the matter at a higher level, though TVK sources say the Chief Minister currently has no other official engagements planned beyond the book launch itself.
The memoir has already stirred some political discussion. In the book Sonia Gandhi calls the Emergency a mistake and describes the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a shameful chapter. Those lines have drawn reactions from different quarters, but the launch itself is being treated as a political and social event by the Congress and its allies.
For Vijay, accepting the invitation is being seen as a natural step given the support Congress gave him after the elections. At the same time, every move of a new Chief Minister is watched closely in Tamil Nadu. People are looking at how he balances state interests with the larger political equations in Delhi. The Mekedatu issue is especially sensitive because water disputes always carry heavy emotional weight in the state.
As of now the plan is clear. Vijay is expected to reach Delhi in time for the November 16 function. Congress leaders from party-ruled states and alliance partners have also been invited. Whether any side meetings happen on the dam issue remains to be seen, but the public reason for the trip is the book launch.
That’s the situation as it stands. A Chief Minister who came from cinema into politics is now flying to the national capital for a formal event hosted by one of the senior-most leaders of the party that helped him form the government. In Tamil Nadu politics, even simple invitations like this become talking points for days.
Sources:
India Today, The Times of India, The Hindu Business Line, DT Next, The New Indian Express (reports published on November 14 and 15, 2026)
@Rohit Manral
