P Chidambaram loyalists skip meet convened by TNCC chief

CHENNAI: Days after DMK chief M Karunanidhi indicated that Congress would be invited to be part of its front for Assembly elections, TNCC President E V K S Elangovan today held a meet of party district secretaries, which was skipped by loyalists of former Union Minister P Chidambaram.

The meet discussed among other issues the positive signals of the DMK chief to have the Congress in its front.

"We will not exclude Congress while inviting alliance parties (while inviting parties to join the DMK-led alliance)," Karunanidhi had said on December 28.

"All district secretaries were favourable to the idea of an alliance with DMK. We however wanted the leadership to make efforts to ensure that DMDK becomes part of the front," a district secretary, who attended the meet told PTI, while declining to be named.

On Chidambaram loyalists abstaining from the meet, he quoted Elangovan as saying that "skipping the meet is akin to back-stabbing."

Meanwhile, out of 61 district secretaries, eight supporters of former Union Minister P Chidambaram were among those who skipped the meet. These included 'Karate' R Thiagarajan, Pudukottai Pushparaj and Sivaganga Sathiyamurthy.

In a signed release, they alleged that "no one can act unilaterally. However, for some time now the activities of the TNCC chief has been one-sided and biased."

"He is engaged in efforts to build a separate team for himself. He is targetting supporters of leaders who called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi against his one-upmanship to take vengenace," they alleged.

On Oct 31 2015, senior Congress leaders, including P Chidambaram, K V Thangkabalu and M Krishnaswamy had called on party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and had apprised him about the alleged one-upmanship of Elangovan.

Claiming that Elanovan expelled many party men even without giving them an opportunity to offer explanation, they said he had replaced Salem District President and many other functionaries in contravention of party rules and had bifurcated the Tirupur Suburban committee."

Citing these reasons, they said they were unable to participate in the district secretaries meeting today.

Notably former Members of Parliament, Vallalperumal and K S Alagiri were among other loyalists of Chidambaram who too had signed the release expressing strong dissent against Elangovan.