Fissures in Tamil Nadu Cong: Meeting decides against LS ticket to Karti over 'anti-party activities'

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) issued a show cause notice to Karti for his remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has perfected his oratory skills, making it difficult for even Rahul Gandhi to counter it.

Chennai: A meeting presided over by two former Congress lawmakers has passed a “resolution” against re-nominating Sivaganga MP Karti P Chidambaram from the Lok Sabha seat for the April-May elections, yet again exposing the factional feud in the national party. 

Karti, who is currently the Lok Sabha MP from Sivaganga, where his father Chidambaram won seven times, was in the eye of a storm last month after the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) issued a show cause notice to him for his remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has perfected his oratory skills, making it difficult for even Rahul Gandhi to counter it.

Though the jurisdiction of the state Congress unit to issue show cause notice to a MP and AICC member has been contested strongly, Karti’s comments on Modi’s “oratory skills” was condemned at the meeting on Saturday, which was chaired by former MP E M Sudarsana Natchiappan and ex-Congress Legislature Party leader K R Ramasamy. 

The meeting ended in passing a “resolution” urging the high command not to give Karti a second chance to contest from Sivaganga, alleging that he has been involved in “anti-party activities.”

“The meeting was called at the demand of the cadres who are upset with his (Karti’s) activities. Their main concern was how people would vote for the Congress and how allies would respect it when a party MP himself says the party can’t match up to the BJP in north India,” Natchiappan told DH.

The presence of Ramasamy, who is also the head of the disciplinary panel of the TNCC, in the meeting was significant as he has been a follower of Chidambaram. The ‘resolution’ comes amid DMK cadres and leaders from Sivaganga demanding that the Lok Sabha seat be allotted to the party rather than Congress.

Karti refused to respond to the development. However, sources close to him said neither the Sivaganga district president nor any current office-bearers participated in the meeting that “anyone can pass a resolution against anybody.”

“If Karti did indulge in anti-party activities, why did the Congress give him a chance to speak in the Parliament (on February 2) during the Debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address? Moreover, Natchiappan raised his voice against Karti’s candidature in 2019, and he has done the same five years later,” a Sivaganga district Congress office-bearer told DH.

He also sought to know why didn’t district office-bearers participate in the meeting if the “mood” was against Karti and derided the move as an “attempt” to embarrass the MP who was in Sivaganga on Saturday for laying the foundation stone for a project. 

Arul Pethiah, an AICC observer for the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency, told DH that he has sent a report to the high command on the meeting convened by a former MP and former MLA. 

“I chaired a meeting of office-bearers, block leaders, and town presidents in Sivaganga on the Lok Sabha elections. There was no protest in the meeting. This meeting didn’t have any sanction from the TNCC. It was more of a private meeting where they spoke what they wanted to,” Pethiah said.

He also said it was “unbecoming” of the Disciplinary Committee chairman to preside over such a meeting.