Having failed repeatedly in its attempt to regain the power which it lost to the DMK in 1967, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee has devised a strategy to address the discontentment among the leaders and cadre of the party in the State. Saturday saw the All India Congress Committee appointing 344 office bearers to the TNCC to navigate the Grand Old Party in the upcoming election to the Legislative Assembly.
Since the leader of the alliance, the DMK, had made it known that it would contest at least 200 assembly seats out of the 234 at stake, it is not known how much the Congress would be allocated during the seat sharing exercise.
“The defeats suffered by the Congress in the Bihar assembly election has weakened the party’s bargaining power. The chances of the Congress getting even the 40 seats it was allocated during the 2016 election look bleak,” said Kolahala Srenivasan, author and political commentator.
There are strong parties like the CPI(M), CPI, VCK, Muslim League and fringe groups in the DMK-led front which would not settle for anything less than two digit figures.
“The Congress High Command saw the writing on the wall and appointed each and everybody in the party something or other. So all are contended,” said Sam Rajappa, veteran scribe and commentator.
According to the list released by the AICC General secretary K C Venugopal, the TNCC would have 32 vice-presidents to assist the president, 57 general secretaries, 104 secretaries, 56 election committee members, five ex-officio members and 32 district committee presidents. In addition to this, all former TNCC presidents who are alive have been honored with designations. This include K S Alagiri, EVKS Elangovan, K V Thangabalu, S Thirunavakkarassar, M Krishnaswamy, R Prabhu, EMS Natchiappan and Ruby Manoharan.
Kumari Ananthan (88) is the father of Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Sounderarajan and brother of late H Vasanthkumar, the Kanyakumari MP who succumbed to Covid-19 recently.
Karti Chidambaram MP and son of Congress strongman P Chidambaram, having failed to make it to the list gave vent to his feelings through the social media questioning the viability of such a jumbo list.
“This jumbo committee serves no purpose. None will have any authority , which means no accountability,” Karti posted in his social media page.
But Rajappa observed that the Congress High Command could have included some more names in the list so that there would not be any kind of discontentment in the party. “They may not be able to enjoy the fruits of power as the DMK would never allow them anywhere near the corridors of power,” he said.
