CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai broke his silence on the rebellion against him by a small section of district-level functionaries and dismissed their complaints as “part and parcel of democracy,” which, he said, the Congress respected.
On Friday, when cadre and senior leaders of TNCC gathered at the party headquarters to wish Selvaperunthagai as he completed one year as TNCC president, a group of around 15 of the 72 district presidents of the party, that was camping in Delhi for the past few days met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to submit complaints against him and demand his removal from the post.
Addressing media here, Selvaperunthagai said he was only trying to strengthen and “reform” TNCC in accordance with the Congress party’s Udaipur Declaration of 2022 and not “uproot” it. Among the key internal reforms of the declaration were restricting the tenure of a person for a post to a maximum of five years, and enforcing “one person, one post” and “one family, one (electoral) ticket” principles.
Despite the complaints against him, Selvaperunthagai stressed that TNCC, which has been infamous in the past for its internal squabbles, is functioning without factions and is ensuring equal opportunities for all.
Party insiders said the rift is refusing to die down since Virudhunagar MP B Manickam Tagore — Congress’s person in-charge of Andhra Pradesh and the party’s whip in Lok Sabha — and Selvaperunthagai are not getting along, with recent rumours of a heated telephonic conversation between the two, which both refused to confirm.
Tagore had recently criticised Selvaperunthagai for the latter’s remarks comparing the DMK rule in Tamil Nadu with that of K Kamaraj, which is considered by Congress leaders as the golden era of the state.
While Selvaperunthagai said Tagore had misunderstood his comments, the MP told TNIE that bringing Kamaraj’s rule again in Tamil Nadu was a vision of Rajiv Gandhi. “It should not be compared to any other government, even Congress-led ones in neighbouring states. It remains an ideal standard for Congress governance in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Meanwhile, M S Dhiraviyam, president of the North Chennai East unit of the Congress party, who is among the rebel group of leaders, confirmed to TNIE that their delegation met AICC leaders Girish Chodankar, Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and K C Venugopal in New Delhi. “The leaders assured us that they would look into the matter,” he said.