CHENNAI: Factionalism in TNCC has resurfaced with the state party chief K V Thangkabalu being heckled and gheraoed by rival camps more than once for continuing its alliance with the ruling DMK.
However, Thangkabalu, facing flak mainly from former TNCC President EVKS Elangovan, known for outbursts against the DMK government, has urged party workers to exercise restraint even as he said the alliance was strong and only AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and DMK president M Karunanidhi will decide on alliances.
Thangkabalu had said there were bound to be differences in a democratic party like Congress and it was not an issue at all.
Party workers had gheraoed him twice in the last week, once at Nagercoil and then at Erode, the hometown of Elangovan.
At Nagercoil he had to face angry party workers for 'handing over' the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat, considered a Congress stronghold, to DMK during 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
He had to face similar wrath from partymen when supporters of both Elangovan and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had gheraoed him at Erode on Sunday and raised slogans against continuing the alliance with DMK.
Congress sources said that they were 'disgruntled' with the DMK in general, but declined to elaborate.
But Thangkabalu has asserted that the alliance is strong and urged his partymen to maintain restraint and not air their differences publicly, seen as a reminder to Elangovan.
Even Karunanidhi had warned that Elangovan's statements could 'strain' the six-year old Congress-DMK ties. They had fought two Lok Sabha polls (2004 and 2009) and the 2006 Assembly elections as allies.
The party's Tamil Nadu in-charge and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has also made it clear that the alliance with DMK was here to stay for the 2011 Assembly elections.
The DMK is dependent on the crucial support of 34 Congress MLAs in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly. It has met with stiff disapproval the pitch made by Elangovan for ministerial berths for his partymen, which had also taken up the matter earlier with the Congress high command.
The Congress legislature party is now headless following the demise of CLP leader D Sudarsanam in June last. It has to elect a leader before November 8, when the monsoon session of the state assembly has been convened to meet.
