CHENNAI: Hobbled by its lacklustre performance, the State leadership of the Congress in Tamil Nadu could witness another rejig within a couple of months.
The grand old party suffered a major blow during the May, 2016 Assembly polls, when it won only eight out of the 41 seats it contested in alliance with the DMK. Ever since, the party organisation appears to lack energy. Even a change of guard by making S Thirunavukkarasar party president in the place of E V K S Elangovan failed to lift the morale of the rank and file, party insiders point out.
From day one, Thirunavukkarasar who was once with the BJP, adopted an aggressive stand regarding ties with its senior ally, the DMK. On major issues, he and the DMK were not on the same page. The gap widened and the Congress went into a sulk after the DMK refused to share more than two per cent seats in the civic bodies, which were slated to go to polls last year, but was put off after judicial intervention. The recent confidence vote in the Assembly further worsened the rift.
“The friction between Thirunavukkarasar and the DMK leadership peaked ahead of the February 18 trust vote of the AIADMK government in the Assembly. He tried his best to convince the high command to side with the Sasikala faction but in vain,” a senior Congress leader said.
DMK working president M K Stalin, who had been in touch with Congress Legislature Party leader K R Ramasamy, was not inclined to talk to Thirunavukkarasar over the issue.
A section of party leaders, including P Chidambaram, EVKS Elangovan and K R Ramasamy, were opposed to the idea of backing Sasikala. Although Thirunavukkarasar deliberately delayed the announcement of the party’s official position of voting against the government, the message in the name of party’s in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Mukul Vasnik, was forwarded to the media on the night preceding the trust vote much to his chagrin.
Stalin is learnt to have conveyed his displeasure over Thirunavukkarasar’s conduct to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi during his recent visit to Delhi. With Sonia obliging Stalin with a rare photo op, she indicated she wanted to do business with him.
“Once the dust of the current round of Assembly polls settles, the high command will look into the issue and effect a change in the leadership of the TNCC,” another leader said.
He added that the high command would, in all likelihood, respect the sentiments of the DMK leadership as the alliance could possibly capitalise on the current fluid political situation in the State that is heading for civic polls.