Largesse for DMK irks Congress workers in Puducherry

Dozens of Congress cadres led by a few functionaries created a ruckus at the Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee office in Pondy town on Sunday, accusing the leaders of mortgaging “the interests of the grand old party” to the DMK by offering it more seats for the forthcoming assembly election in the Union territory.

In Chennai too, there was trouble for the Congress when factionalism came to the fore on Saturday.

In Pondy, the AICC screening committee led by Digvijay Singh had, on Sunday morning, convened a meeting in the presence of former chief minister V Narayanasamy and PPCC president A V Subramanian to screen and select candidates for the polls. Dozens of Congress cadres from constituencies including Mangalam and Thirubhuvanai, led by a few functionaries, barged into the office and raised slogans against the leaders for “sacrificing winnable” assembly constituencies to the DMK.


They pointed out that the Congress, which had contested 21 seats and won 15 in the 2016 assembly election, settled for a mere 15 seats for the forthcoming election whereas the DMK, which had contested nine seats but won only two, was offered 13 seats this time. They insisted that the party contest the election alone. Tension gripped Pondy town following the incident and a team of policemen along with paramilitary forces reached the party office to prevent any untoward incident.