Chennai: An apparent fresh hunt for a new Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president seems to have turned into a wild goose chase once again like the earlier attempts to identify a suitable leader to replace K S Alagiri, who has been holding the post for over four years since February 2019, ending in fiascos with too many names being proposed and too many disposed by too many groups.
With the recent eruption of a rumour that the Leader of the Congress Legislative Party, K Selvaperunthagai, was being considered for the TNCC president’s post by the AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, several groups went into a cuddle to scuttle the move by coming up with a slew of reasons to be cited to the high command to drop the move.
One of them was that Selvaperunthagai had switched five political parties and did not enjoy the loyalty of Congress workers in the State. They recalled that he started his political career with Puratchi Bharatham and then joined a plethora of parties like Puthiya Tamilagam, BSP and VCK before becoming a member of the Congress party.
Another charge against him was that he did not enjoy the support or goodwill of other MLAs of the party as there was a general resentment over his attitude in not letting others speak on the floor of the Assembly and he always taking an open pro-government stand on all issues.
But with Kharge reportedly keen on having a Dalit leader as the next TNCC chief, a delegation of Congress leaders from Tamil Nadu left on an expedition to Bengaluru to meet Dinesh Gundu Rao, the AICC secretary in charge of the State and also the AICC president and personally plead with him not to disturb the applecart at the moment as the Lok Sabha elections were not far away.
With Alagiri himself leading the team, comprising two MPs K Jayakumar and Vijay Vasanth, a MLA Rajesh Kumar and a slew of district presidents of the party, the delegation left Chennai by road to stop the appointment of Selvaperunthagai as TNCC chief.
Some others referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi suggesting the name of Jothimani, Member of Parliament representing Karur constituency, as the TNCC chief in the past and suggested that she could replace Aalgiri as she is perceived as a courageous woman who could take on BJP State president K Aannamalai.
But again there was another section that did not want her as she would not be able to negotiate with alliance partners, given her temperament, and not taking quick decisions with her penchant to seek opinion from party high command in Delhi on every major issue.
Since another choice, Sasikanth Senthil, was also struck down on the ground that he was not someone who would get on to the ground and fight the BJP and with other potential candidates having their own set of detractors within the party, the Congress high command was seemingly caught in a dilemma.
The delegation, led by Alagiri, to Bengaluru was planning to tell the high command that the change of guard could wait till the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections. One, Alagiri maintained a good rapport with the DMK, leader of the coalition in the State, and that he had the experience in negotiating seat sharing and seat allocation.
That the Congress had done extremely well in Lok Sabha, Assembly and two local body elections with Alagiri at the helm is another reason cited for letting him continue at the helm. But one has to wait and watch if Algiri continues or is replaced.
