Civic elections may prove costly for TNCC without chief

Chennai: Congress in Tamil Nadu seems to have already missed the bus for the local body elections. With less than two months to go for the crucial grassroot polls, the headless state unit that is already riddled with factional fights is staring at terrible defeat yet again, lament senior leaders of the Tamil Nadu Congress.

Openly bitter with the AICC for not finding a successor to firebrand E.V.K.S. Elangovan who resigned as the PCC chief on June 16 following the party’s debacle in the Assembly elections, the TNCC office-bearers insist that even if a new leader is appointed, he (or she) would not have enough time to prepare for the local body elections expected mid-October.

Apart from managing the difficult seat-sharing haggling with ally DMK, the new chief would have to quick-fix the feuding factions to pre-empt poll-time sabotage.
“Also, since the polls would be for over 13,000 posts across the state, the PCC president would have to reach our ‘hand’ symbol to every nook and corner. A truly tough task, if not an impossible one”, said a party senior who did not want to be named.

“The new president will have to first muster the support of district presidents who are crucial when it comes to local body polls. We need to ensure that all the party candidates contest on our (hand) symbol, which is quite a challenging task in civic polls. If any rebellion is not nipped in the bud and we have Congress candidates contesting as independents, our votes will split”, he said.

Another Tamil Nadu  Congress leader lamented that the AICC was yet to initiate seat-sharing talks with the DMK despite knowing that the tortuous process would consume critical time.

“The AICC seems to be completely detached from what’s happening in Tamil Nadu. Local body polls may not be big for them, but it is crucial for state leaders like us. They should have appointed a successor to E.V.K.S. immediately,” he said.

Said ‘Tindivanam’ K. Ramamurthy, former PCC president, “The Congress state unit has never been headless for so long; this only shows the party is direction-less and is sinking. Even during the freedom movement, when the state Congress chief got arrested, the next-in-command was quickly announced as the successor. But then, those were the days when people supported the party overwhelmingly but now the Congress hardly has any public support”.

If Ramamurthy did not plead anonymity for his damning ‘quote’, there is a good reason — he had quit the party “in disgust” in 2006. Several state Congress leaders expressed apprehension that if the AICC continued dithering on naming the new TNCC chief, the Congress’ vote share in the state — estimated to be around seven per cent in DMK alliance and mere four per cent when alone — would go down further while that of the BJP might improve on its lotus.

“Already, the public perception towards the Congress is quite bad as
we are seen as a party sans grassroot support, a party with more leaders squabbling among themselves than cadre. Being out of power for five decades has taken its toll and now the PCC is headless for over two months. All this will cost us at the civic polls”, said a state Congress senior who did not want to be named.

When asked to comment on reports that he was among the aspirants for the PCC chief post, he smiled wryly before replying, “I am not interested in suicide, and I don’t think there are many. Why push for the president post now and get beheaded when the election results come?”