The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) is pulling out all stops to engage its office-bearers and focus on preparing the party’s functionaries for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Despite speculation over his position, TNCC president K.S. Alagiri, who will soon be completing five years in the post, will oversee a meeting of district congress committee presidents on Monday to ensure that all booth-level agent posts are filled.
While it is apparent that a number of senior leaders — Karti Chidambaram, S. Jothimani and Dr. A. Chellakumar among others — are fancying their chances to replace Mr. Alagiri and some others have stayed away from party affairs, sources in the party say that the present office-bearers, including the president, are hoping to keep the party cadre engaged and prepared for the upcoming election.
The DMK, a senior ally of the TNCC in the INDIA bloc in the State, is believed to have conveyed to the Congress high command that it was important to ensure that the factionalism in the party’s State unit does not come to the fore with the change in the State leadership.
Meanwhile, In the run-up to the VCK’s mega rally in Tiruchi on December 23, the party’s president and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan has called for a meeting of the party’s executive council.
The rally will bring together CM M.K. Stalin, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja, Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and other State leaders.
The party leaders hope that All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge, who has also been invited, will attend the rally.
VCK Assembly floor leader Sinthanai Selvan said the party desired to mobilise at least two lakh people for the rally.
“The rally will clarify the difference between faith in God and discrimination (in the name of religion). The VCK’s sustained campaign against discrimination is one of the reasons why the AIADMK changed its stand with respect to the BJP and decided to part ways [with the national party],” Mr. Selvan contended.
