Dissidents again gunning for Elangovan

By Radha Venkatesan

CHENNAI, JUNE 18. With the Assembly elections over and the TMC- Congress merger appearing far away, senior Congress leaders in the State have returned to their favourite activity - dissidence.

The clamour for the removal of the TNCC president, Mr. E.V.K.S. Elangovan, which briefly ceased during the Assembly election, has resumed with renewed vigour.

A few seniors including the former TNCC president, Mr. M. P. Subramaniam, called on the party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, recently in Delhi and urged her to oust Mr. Elangovan ``who has proved to be a failure''.

``Mr. Elangovan's appointment was only a stop-gap arrangement. He should be removed,'' says Mr. Subramaniam.

In a bid to give a fresh impetus to the ``sack Elangovan'' campaign, the seniors including the Sivaganga MP, Mr. Sudarshanam Nachiappan, the former Union Minister, Mr. M. Arunachalam, and the former MP, Mr. V. Rajeswaran, would participate in a meeting in Tiruchi convened by disgruntled former MP, Mr. Adaikalraj.

The Congress strongman from Tiruchi is upset at the TNCC leadership failing to get from the AIADMK the Tiruchi parliamentary seat for which a by-election was held along with the Assembly elections.

Most dissidents have a shared grouse and a ``common goal''. While they are furious with Mr. Elangovan over denial of ticket to their supporters or for themselves in the elections, almost all of them are aspirants for TNCC presidentship.

Mr. Elangovan's ``unilateral action'' in sacking a few district presidents for anti-party activities and issue of show-cause notice to a few seniors including the former MP, Mr. R. Anbarasu, too have swelled the dissident flock. The Myladuthurai MP, Mr. Manishankar Aiyer, who has not joined the dissident camp, is also said to be pressing for his ouster.

Interestingly, the key dissident leader and former TNCC president, Mr. K. V. Thangabalu, has now taken a back-seat. While his supporters are scheduled to participate in a rebels' meeting tomorrow, he has decided to keep off.

In an indication of the growing opposition to the TNCC chief, only three of the seven MLAs turned up for the victory conference he organised in his home district of Erode.

However, he dismisses the dissident demand for his removal as ``an act of desperation'', and claims it would ``not yield results''.

The dissidents, however, have decided to troop to Delhi in the second week of July to jointly press for sacking the TNCC president.

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