Month Ago BJP Now Congress - Hot Politics
The replacement of three district presidents here has resulted in the faction feud in the Congress coming to the fore. Kovai Thangam, MLA, has threatened to observe a fast on Tuesday with his supporters in protest against the decision. He claimed that eight sitting MLAs would join the protest. The party had announced on Sunday that Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South, Coimbatore Urban and the Nilgiris District Congress Committee (DCC) stood dissolved. Mr. Kovai Thangam (Urban District), P.V. Mani (Coimbatore North) and Kuniamuthur Arumugam (Coimbatore South) were removed as DCC presidents. Kovai Thangam, MLA, has threatened to observe a fast on Tuesday with his supporters
The Congress also announced that the district unit was being carved into two, Coimbatore Urban and Coimbatore Rural, with A.R. Chinnaiyan and V.M.C. Manokaran as DCC presidents. The newly appointed DCC chiefs assumed office and addressed mediapersons on Monday. Mr. Kovai Thangam blamed it on former Union Minister R. Prabhu and All India Secretary of the party in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Arun Kumar. He said the fast was to attract the attention of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership in general and Sonia Gandhi in particular.
He was certain that the removal would not have had the sanction of the AICC. “We have faxed letters to the high command. Where is the necessity to remove the district presidents in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris alone and why should somebody living away from the city be made the urban district president?” He said with the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency turning into a Reserved constituency, Mr. Prabhu was planning to contest either from Coimbatore or Pollachi next time. Hence he was inducting his men as office-bearers. Mr. Arun Kumar was abetting the move. Instead of planting people through these “undemocratic means,” party elections should be held, and “whoever has cadre support can win the post.”
Mayor R. Venkatachalam (Congress), told there was no discrimination in the removal of the three DCC presidents. In fact, the two nominated now were from the erstwhile Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). The shuffle of other district Congress presidents was on the cards, he said quoting Mr. Prabhu. He pointed out that when Ramesh Chennithala was in-charge of TNCC, he had named 54 office-bearers. “We quietly accepted the party’s decision.”
