PUDUCHERRY: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the All India Congress Committee appointed Puducherry Lok Sabha member and former Chief Minister Ve Vaithilingam as the President of Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday. He succeeded A V Subramanian.
Son of V Venkatasubba Reddiar, also former CM of Puducherry, Vaithilingam's association with the Congress party spans five decades, with his political career covering 35 years. He is credited with winning all eight assembly elections.
The veteran Congress leader served as the CM for two terms, from 1991-96 and 2008-2011. Starting his career as a Youth Congress member in 1971, he went on to win his first election in 1985 from Nettapakkam constituency and became the PWD Minister. During the DMK-TMC government from 1996-2000, he was the leader of Congress legislature party and functioned as the Leader of Opposition.
After delimitation of constituencies, Nettapakkam was declared reserved and Vaithilingam moved to the newly carved constituency of Kamaraj Nagar, from where he won the 2011 elections, at the same time when N Rangasamy’s newly floated party AINRC swept the polls and came to power. In 2016, when V Narayanasamy-led Congress government came to power, Vaithilingam became the Speaker. In 2019, however, he resigned from the role and went on to win the Lok Sabha elections with 56.26% votes.
With his appointment ahead of the general elections, the veteran leader has a task at hand, primarily after the battering the party took in the last assembly elections with several senior leaders and their supporters shifting to BJP and AINRC. In addition to the above, the party is beset with groupism. Vaithilingam, who had been involved in electioneering work in Karnataka and camped there for over a month, will perhaps take cues from Karnataka PCC chief D K Shivakumar in rebuilding the party in Puducherry.
