Chennai: The nomination of former Union Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti for the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency has triggered a revolt of sorts in the Tamil Nadu Congress party with strongman E M Sudarshana Nachiappan questioning the choice of one facing serious court cases with unpredictable outcome. Besides, the father and son "are not popular in the constituency as they have done nothing for the people there", the former Union Minister told reporters here, reacting with visible anger to the AICC announcement late Sunday including Karti's name in its ninth list of LS candidates for the party across India.
Retaliating, Karti said: "There are no court cases against me, I face no proceedings in a court of law, there are no charges against me, I face no trial'. He filed his nomination papers that claimed he faced no criminal cases.
However, Nachiappan is convinced there are now 'bad times' ahead for the Congress in TN because of the wrong choice in Sivaganga, where he was himself an aspirant - it was said he was called to Delhi and informed he could file the nomination. He alleged that Chidambaram engineered the last-minute change in the list and got son Karti in. He also accused Chidambaram of thwarting his growth in the party and sabotaging positions that came his way "because I defeated him" (in LS poll in Sivaganga in 1999 when PC was in Moopanar's TMC).
PCC president K.S. Alagiri dismissed Nachiappan's charge and even turned the table on the latter saying he should have taken his grouse to the party high command instead of going before the media. All the court cases against Karti had been fabricated by the BJP regime out of political vendetta, insisted Alagiri, a Chidambaram loyalist.
Karti went a step further, alleging that the cases against him were filed by the vindictive BJP regime only to silence his father, a hard critic of the Modi Government.
"Let me make it clear that there are no cases against me in any court of law. This must be made abundantly clear. There are only baseless allegations against me because the fascist Central Government wants to silence the voice of my father who is the most vehement critic, the most vocal critic of this government", Karti told a news channel.
He, however, refused to comment on Nachiappan's accusation because that was "something of which I have no direct knowledge about".
Karti trolled for flags on Merc
‘Campaign car with our alliance flags' tweeted Karti Chidambaram putting out his swanky Mercedes Benz SUV that had nine colourful party flags nicely put up on brass holders on the plate just below the vehicle's bonnet. The groovy picture had the flamboyant Congressman leaning forward to read a newspaper spread on the bonnet.
The tweet late Sunday had quite a bit of busy response through that evening and the following, mostly heavy trolling with one post wondering where the 'bail paper' was among those many flags on the bonnet, and another gushed how there would now be a luxury Merc on the dusty TN campaign duty.
"It's more of trolling the CPI. Mercedes Benz logo right below their flag. You are giving little hope NDA", said a saffron 'chowkidar'.
