TNCC chief’s strike aims at party growth

They conveyed their wishes for the success of the stir.

As the TNCC is known for its many number of leaders and their factions, the announcement of hunger strike by the state unit in Tiruchy had raised many eyebrows as the leaders making appearance in the same stage use to be a rare thing. However, the presence of many leaders like KV Thangabalu, P Chidambaram, Sudarsana Natchiyappan, Gopinath, Kumari Anandhan and M Krishnasamy put an end to the doubts. 

Party insiders said that the tactics of Thirunavukarasar who has been following the Dravidian ideology and the way of leading the party, is to make Congress ‘the talk of the town.’ He has set himself the initial target of uniting the leaders under a common issue, so the hunger strike for the whole day, which is a rare thing in Congress. 

Though he could not achieve full unity in the party, the first public programme garnered a decent gathering than expected. It clearly shows that he had sown the seed to give a new lease of life to the Congress. Revealing the eagerness of the Congress to hit the streets for the welfare of the people, the Congress chief said in the meeting “Congress has been proving that it is not only a political party, but also a people’s movement.”

Diplomatically defending the Karnataka Congress and shifting the blame on the BJPled Centre, he said “The neighbouring state has heeded to the Supreme Court order and released water, but it is the Centre which had betrayed Tamil Nadu by refusing to form the Cauvery Management Board immediately.” Hinting that the Congress is still in the DMK alliance he said “We will also ask O Panneerselvam to organise an all-party meeting and then meet the Prime Minister. If OPS does not, Congress will participate in the meeting organised by Stalin and will meet the PM with him to insist on the formation of CMB.” 

However, after the hunger strike, the TNCC chief told the reporters that he is encouraging Congress cadre to contest in all the one lakh local body seats at the panchayat level. This may irk the DMK, which allotted less for the national party in the upcoming civic polls.