Puducherry MP P. Kannan faces party ire

PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has written to the AICC to initiate disciplinary action against senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P. Kannan as he distanced himself from active party work and poll campaign in the recent Lok Sabha polls for the lone seat in the Union territory of Puducherry.

PPCC president A.V. Subramaniam said Mr Kannan had also abstained from campaigning for party candidate and Union minister of state for PMO V. Narayanasamy during the elections. A number of complaints were received against him from different wings of the party and as he happens to be an MP, the AICC is the competent authority to take action against him.

It was the duty of every Congressman to campaign, particularly when the party was going it alone in the Lok Sabha polls. The PPCC has also identified all those who have distanced themselves from poll campaign and very soon, show cause notices would be issued to them, calling for explanations. Once action is taken against such partymen, they wiill not be re-admitted into the party for the next six years.

Mr Kannan acted in violation of party rules, Mr Subramaniam said. He added that the Congress would go it alone in the assembly polls in 2016 in Puducherry and form the government. Referring to the dissatisfaction that government employees, industrialists, students and other sections of people bear against the Rangasamy-headed AINRC government, he said the party would be defeated in the polls and Congress would emerge victorious.

The Rangasamy government has been assessed by people to be a poor performer, he added. A batch PPCC functionaries quit the party in March to mark their protest against “the arbitrary and autocratic style of functioning of the PPCC” in selecting Mr Narayanasamy as the candidate for the polls.