CHENNAI:After a week-long high-decibel fratricidal war, there is truce in the State Congress unit. TNCC president E V K S Elangovan on Wednesday declared that he was no more at loggerheads with former Union Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti and said the party would strengthen the organisation with a renewed vigour through a membership drive.
The tiff with Karti was due to a misunderstanding of Elangovan’s statement over a father son duo. Explaining that his son too was in the party like many leaders whose wards were in Congress, the TNCC chief said the statement about a father and son duo was not specific to any leader.
On the repatriation of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, he told reporters that it should be voluntary and they should not be forced to return to their motherland.
Indirectly hitting out at the BJP, he said a party which had not obtained even ten lakh votes on its own was claiming that it would recruit one crore members in Tamil Nadu. He said Congress workers would go to the villages and meet the people. They would not rely on missed calls and online enrolment, Elangovan said and added that the functionaries had been told to complete the membership drive before the end of February.
A new list to fill the few vacant district president posts had been prepared and sent to the party high command. It would be released after approval from the high command, he said.
Since former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had quit the party, the high command would decide on nominating someone for the party trust in her place.
The TNCC had decided to invite Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi and arrange meetings in the State to strengthen the organisation in Tamil Nadu.
Supporters of Chidambaram including ‘Karate’ Thiagarajan attended the district secretaries meeting, which was held earlier.