Realising that its nominee, Union Minister for PMO V Narayanasamy, is facing stiff competition from All India NR Congress (AINRC) candidate R Radhakrishnan in the April 24 polls, the AICC is out to pacify its dissident leader and Rajya Saba member P Kannan by moving him out of Puducherry to another State as poll observer.
“The AICC has offered Kannan the role of party observer in either Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh,” highly placed sources in Congress told Express.
As Kannan is reluctant to support the candidature of Narayanasamy and his supporters had resigned from their posts protesting the nomination of Narayanasamy, the Congress thinks that moving him out of the UT is the best possible solution under the circumstances. A few days ago, senior AICC leader and Union Minister for Health Ghulam Nabi Azad had contacted Kannan over phone, sources said.
“The AICC has to come to terms with the fact that he has nothing against the Congress but will not support Narayanasamy. To ensure that he does not leave the party and is not used by the opponents, AICC has offered Kannan an option of being appointed the party’s political observer in either of the two States,” said the source.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister and AINRC founder N Rangasamy is trying to lure Kannan into his fold.
However, Kannan is yet to respond to either AICC or AINRC and is weighing all pros and cons before taking any decision.
RJD Stands by Cong
The Puducherry unit of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) extended its support to Congress candidate V Narayanasamy for contesting the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat. T Sanjeevi, president of the local unit, called on Narayanasamy at his office on Friday handed over a letter in his support.
Support for AINRC
The Kayethe Millath Sports and Welfare Movement on Friday extended its support to All India N R Congress (AINRC) candidate R Radhakrishnan. In a statement here, the movement said that it will soon undertake electioneering in a van in support of Radhakrishnan.