Chidambaram, son Karti skip TNCC executive meet

CENNAI: Former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti, an AICC member, were both conspicuous by their absence at the third state executive meeting convened on Tuesday by the TNCC chief E V K S Elangovan. In fact, Karti sent a letter to TNCC seeking a leave of absence.

The two had attended the first executive meet in December last, a month after Elangovan had assumed charge in November 2014. Karti had alone participated in the second meet of the state body in March this year at which AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik was present.

This time, despite the show of unity by the Chidambaram and Elangovan factions at Sunday's rally in Delhi, neither PC nor Karti attended the meet considered crucial in the run up to the assembly polls.

Elangovan, though, played down their absence saying they had conveyed their inability to come due to some prior commitments.

"Chidambaram told me in Delhi he would try to attend but could not make it as he was pre-occupied, while Karti sent a letter seeking leave of absence," Elangovan said.

Among the absentees was also former state party chief K V Thangkabalu who had attended the first meet. This indicated that differences between factions have not been resolved and there is a temporary truce after Chidambaram supporters met Elangovan on Friday last asking for an end to verbal attacks on their leader. Chidambaram loyalists were present in strength at the meet. Elangovan called on members to complete the membership drive by May 15 to facilitate organizational elections across the country as directed by party vice president Rahul Gandhi or face disciplinary action.

Elangovan said the Congress would organize a march to Raj Bhavan soon and meet the governor to seek dismissal of the AIADMK government for its "corrupt practices". The date would be announced in a couple of days, he said. Newly-appointed Congress spokesperson Khushbu, a special invitee to the meet, described herself as a "street fighter" who was ready to join the party's agitations.

The meeting adopted a condolence resolution for wood cutters from the state who became victims of police encounter in Andhra forests. Political resolutions praised the "successful" public rally in Delhi, ratified the appointments of Motilal Vora and C R Kesavan to the TNCC charitable trust and condemned "large scale corruption" in the AIADMK government. Another resolution called for total prohibition in the state and opposed the imposition of telecast charges of Rs 70 lakh on private TV channels by the state-owned Arasu cable corporation.

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