Rift in Tamil Nadu Congress over selection of poll candidates

NEW DELHI: Even before the declaration of Assembly election results in Tamil Nadu, blame game has begun in Congress’ state unit with members of Parliament and local leaders queuing up at Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s doorstep to complain against state unit chief K V Thangkabalu and AICC leader in-charge of the state Ghulam Nabi Azad.

What has given sudden momentum to the protests is the possibility of an electoral setback in the state. Congress MPs would like the party high command to believe that the candidate selection could have been better. The protests have got shriller with the recent expulsion of 19 persons, including seven Youth Congress office-bearers, by Thangkabalu.

While Union minister G K Vasan formally complained to Gandhi against Thangkabalu’s action, Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan met Gandhi on Tuesday and talked about poor candidate selection for Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Natarajan also briefed Gandhi on how Thangkabalu cornered seats for his supporters in the Congress list, edging out deserving candidates. According to sources, members of Parliament did not campaign whole-heartedly as they saw Thangkabalu getting a plum share of seats for his candidates and completely dominating the pre-poll selection scenario.

While six of the eight Lok Sabha MPs from the state met Gandhi before the elections, local leadership is desperately seeking an audience with her now. Sources said that the local leadership also blames Azad for giving Thangkabalu a free hand in the candidate selection process. “Thangkabalu has won Azad’s trust. This is why he was able to get such a free hand in candidate selection,” a senior Congress leader from the state said.

Of the 63 seats Congress fought in the elections, 34 sitting MLAs were renominated. As per estimates of local leaders, Natarajan could get a seat for only one of her candidates and Vasan got about four. Remaining 15-16 candidates went to Thangkabalu’s supporters.

“This is unprecedented. In my district, a district panchayat union president, who has a great support base across 11 MLA constituencies, could not get a ticket because Thangkabalu favoured a leader from the minority community,” a senior Congress leader said.

This resentment within the Congress saw Thangkabalu expelling 19 Congressmen as he suspected them of working against him in his Mylapore (Chennai) constituency. Sources said that what has sharply divided the Congress further is that most of the expelled Congress leaders are Chidambaram’s supporters.