Chennai: Tamil Nadu Congress headquarters here opened the counters to issue applications for party tickets for the ensuing state polls but the groups opposed to state president EVKS Elangovan chose to keep away alleging ‘fraud’.
PCC spokesman A. Gopanna had announced that the application forms would be sold at Rs 100 each at Satyamurthi Bhavan from Wednesday.
The completed forms could be submitted before February 15 along with the fee of Rs.5000 for ‘general’ category while the women aspirants and those applying for the reserved constituencies needed to pay Rs 2500. However, at the close of counters on Wednesday, none turned up for the forms from the warring factions led by former Union minister P. Chidambaram, former PCC presidents K. V. Thangkabalu and K. Krishnaswamy, and former Central minister Sudarsana Nachiappan.
“These are bogus forms. This announcement (for applying for party tickets) itself is unauthorized. There has not been any directive from the AICC headquarters”, said a Chidambaram lieutenant. He did not want to be named.
Another ‘rival’ group leader argued that the “so-called application forms” did not have any numbers franked on them, which led to suspicion that there could be many bogus forms in circulation. “What prevents anyone from photo-copying an application form and selling it unauthorisedly? Why didn’t they (EVKS) number the application forms to prevent such counterfeiting? Besides, did Elangovan obtain the AICC permission to begin this process?”
Yet another ‘rival’ Congressman accused EVKS of not consulting other seniors—read rival faction lords—before launching the ticket-distribution process.
“Also, this announcement came from Gopanna and not from EVKS, who does not miss a single opportunity to grab media headlines. Why did they fix the application fee at Rs 5000? And why didn’t they (EVKS) form a coordination committee to supervise this process?”
However, EVKS loyalist Gopanna rubbished the charges as ‘petty’. As a party spokesman, he had the authority to issue the announcement regarding the poll tickets, he insisted, adding, “They (rival faction leaders) do not turn up (at Satyamurthi Bhavan) even when there is need for consultations. They only make charges”, he told DC, sounding very bitter.
While the PCC continues to be riddled with such faction feuding, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad is bound to appear pretty embarrassed when he arrives at Chennai on Saturday to discuss alliance with DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
