Search the Internet          Tips

TNCC factions upset
with CWC nominations

With Congress President Sonia Gandhi making her choice of Congress Working Committee nominees, there is consternation and dissatisfaction in Tamil Nadu Congress circles.

While many party-men are upset over the absence of any full-fledged CWC nominee from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, though assembly elections are due, a larger section is equally offended over the permanent invitee status conferred on Lok Sabha member Mani Shankar Aiyar.

"It is a wrong signal we are sending out to prospective allies, that the Congress in the state will continue to be their door-mat," said a TNCC office-bearer.

While he conceded that there were not many with stature to be considered for nomination, he cited the names of Mottamma and Sarojini Pulla Reddy, to argue that any leader from Tamil Nadu was better known across the country than them.

Tamil Nadu has not had a CWC member for long. Even after the Tirupati All-India Congress Committee, when P V Narasimha Rao was prime minister and party chief, Tamil Nadu did not have any representation as organisational elections could not be conducted in time, due to large-scale bogus members being enrolled by rival factions.

Afraid of the unstinted loyalty of all state party factions to the Nehru-Gandhi family, Rao reportedly decided to have an outsider in Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy as his advisor on Tamil Nadu affairs.

Those from the Pondicherry party say PCC president V Narayanaswamy and former Union minister M O H Farooq are worthy of consideration for a CWC post. They too agree that Chief Minister P Shanmugam, by virtue of being a permanent invitee attaching to his governmental status, need not be considered at present. "Narayanaswamy and Farooq are known even in Tamil Nadu party circles and even otherwise," they argued.

Interestingly, most factions in the Tamil Nadu party are even more upset over Aiyar becoming a permanent invitee to the CWC.

"He is known to be close only to AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha, not to any Congress leader from the state. And for someone from the Tamil Nadu Congress, his relations with TMC supremo G K Moopanar are strained, at best. He is a loner, not a team player and operates at levels unfathomable to the average Congress man," quipped one of them.

However, defenders of Aiyer's nomination say that he is a better strategist at higher levels than ordinary Congressmen in the region can conceive. "He is not available for factional feuds of the kind known to other Congress men in the state. He is above them all and has the ear of Sonia Gandhi. This is what upsets them the most," they added, citing his unflinching loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

There is no denying the TMC's feelings of frustration at fresh Congress moves. Aiyer is one of two state party leaders considered a permanent anathema to the TMC leadership; the other being former Union minister R Prabhu.

While Prabhu is said to favour a Third Front, as Jayalalitha 'very badly ditching him' by not campaigning for him in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Aiyer is a known supporter of the AIADMK supremo within the Congress hierarchy.

That being the case, Sonia Gandhi's proposed visit to Mayiladuthurai, the Lok Sabha constituency of Aiyer, on Saturday, assumes added significance.

You may also want to read:
Sonia rewards veterans
It is a reward for my loyalty: B Sarojini Pulla Reddy

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report