EVKS Elangovan hits out at Chidambaram

Chennai: TNCC chief E.V.K.S. Elangovan on Monday used sarcasm to hit out at P. Chidambaram for his allegations that the party was allotted seats it did not want by the DMK, saying he cannot react to that comment of “a great genius”.

“Mr Chidambaram is a senior. He is educated and he is a great genius. So I cannot comment on statement made by him,” Mr Elangovan gave a sarcastic reply when asked to comment on the statement by the former Minister.

Mr Chidambaram had on Sunday said the Congress was allotted only 41 seats to contest this assembly election and even in those 41 seats, the party has been allotted seats which are not desired by it. The TNCC chief has been very vocal in criticizing Mr Chidambaram and other senior leaders very often.

The two leaders, who have had a running battle, made a joint appearance last week at Sathyamurthy Bhawan to welcome TMC leaders back into the party fold.
However, the bonhomie did not last long as Mr Chidambaram made a veiled attack on the Congress chief when he said the party did not get the seats that it desired.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Mr Elangovan said the Central Election Committee of the Congress would meet on Tuesday to finalise the candidates for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. He said the candidates list would be out by Tuesday evening.

On criticism that the Congress party did not ask for enough reserved constituencies for people of Scheduled Caste, Mr Elangovan said the party could get only 4 seats as most of the seats were allotted to DMK and other Dalit-based parties like Puthiya Thamizhagam.  He also said the Congress’ candidates list would have members from the minority communities like Christianity and Islam.