Chennai: Former Cuddalore MP K. S. Alagiri, was appointed on Saturday as the new president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Known to be the loyalist of former Union minister P Chidambaram, he replaces S. Thirunavukarasar whose scalp many in the state Congress have been demanding for quite some time and in fact, were camping in Delhi pleading for change.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also appointed H. Vasantha Kumar, K. Jayakumar, M. K. Vishnu Prasad and Mayura Jayakumar as new working presidents to assist PCC chief Alagiri, according to a statement from AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal.
"The party appreciates the contribution of outgoing TNCC president Thirunavakkarasar," said a statement from the AICC official, seeking to placate the bruised feelings of the outgoing state chief, who had even recently proclaimed that he would continue in the post and the party high command had immense faith in his stewardship.
This is perhaps one of the rare instances of the AICC changing guard at the Satyamurthi Bhavan so close to Parliament polls. The new team will have very little time to prepare the high command for the pre-poll maneuvers and alliance talks with the 'big brother' DMK chief M. K. Stalin; but then, it has always been the 'bane' of the TNCC to wait at the doorsteps of the AICC for the list of candidates for the elections-be it for Parliament or for the State Assembly-till the eleventh minute.
There are other reasons why it's not going to be smooth sailing for Alagiri. With the AICC appointing four 'working' presidents to "assist" him, the man will find the going tough at Satyamurthi Bhavan, where there will now be four additional cabins next to his and there would be multiple media conferences by them all.
"It will be chaotic at the Bhavan. Sure, there will be flood of cars there for a change now whereas Thirunavukarasar hardly functioned and barely collaborated with the rest of the party seniors during his controversial term as the PCC chief. Now with Alagiri as the head, the state unit will be indirectly controlled by Chidambaram-in fact his son Karti. PC already controls the Congress group in the Assembly since the CLP leader K. R. Ramasamy is his man", said a Congress senior, requesting anonymity.
