PUDUCHERRY: In order to revive its sagging fortunes, the Congress is making attempts at roping Chief Minister N Rangasamy back into the party to have a strong unified party before the Assembly elections and is sending feelers in this regard to him.
A Namassivayam, who is the son-in-law of Rangasamy’s elder brother Adi Kesavan has been given the stewardship of the Pradesh Congress Committee primarily with the objective of uniting Rangasamy with the parent party. The appeal made by Namassivayam after his appointment as PCC president to all estranged leaders and cadres to return to the fold was directed at Rangasamy, said Leader of the Opposition in the territorial Assembly V Vaithilingam. He ridiculed the media for mistaking the appeal for the estranged Rajya Sabha member P Kannan. A unified party will ensure that there is no place for opposition, he said.
The party has already worked out a strategy to weaken Rangasamy so that he feels the political necessity to join Congress. “We have split his family vertically and so also the vote bank associated with it. Not only Namassivayam, but even the Chief Minister’s elder brother is with the Congress. He came to the party office when Namassivayam assumed charge),” said Vaithilingam at a function in Bahour, organised by the Block Congress on the occasion of Kamarajar birth anniversary celebrations on Wednesday. “Even the blessings of his Guru Appapaithiyasamy, which is said to be factor in success of Rangasamy over the years) are also with the Congress. “Referring to the portraits of Appapaithiyasamy put up in Congress office, he said that even the Guru has come to the party office.”
Already his elder brother has come and younger one will soon follow suit,” said Vaithilingam. There is absolutely no problem in giving him Chief Ministership if the Congress comes to power, said Vaithilingam.