Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president EVKS Elangovan expressed ‘thanks’ to former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan for leaving the party. “We in the Congress are all grateful to Jayanthi Natarajan for her decision to leave the party. I am sure this move of her will purify and strengthen the party,” Elangovan said in a media interaction at Coimbatore.

Elangovan, touring the State in his bid to revive and rejuvenate the party in Tamil Nadu said the party would get strengthened more if one or two self-styled leaders too follow the footsteps of Jayanthi Natarajan and quit the party. Though he did not name anyone in particular, Elangovan was referring to the father-son duo of P Chidambaram and Karti, who are on a warpath with the party’s State and Central leadership.

Karti has been issued a showcause notice for forming an organisation by name G67, which the former  claims is a collective of people born after 1967, the year Congress was voted out of power in Tamil Nadu. The junior Chidambaram in his reply to the showcause notice had said that the TNCC has no power to take disciplinary action against him as he was a member of the AICC.

The TNCC chief scoffed at Natarajan's claim of her family legacy and honour. “She said that her grand father M Bhaktavalsalasam was the last Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. It was because of his anti-people policies the Congress was routed in the 1967 election in spite of the good works done by people like K Kamaraj,” said Elangovan.

He said that Bhaktavalsalam did not release the rice stocked by the Government and meant for public distribution in spite of the steep hike in market prices. This together with the anti-Tamil stance of Bhaktavalsalam during the anti-Hindi riots resulted in the DMK trouncing the party in the 1967 Assembly election. What is the legacy about which Jayanthi Natarajan is now clamouring about," asked Elangovan..He said the Congress had to pay a big price for the inefficiency of Bhaktavalsalam.

He also alleged that Natarajan was acting and speaking as per the script prepared by the BJP leadership. "Why she waited for 13 months to come out in the open challenging the party leadershipIJ was she waiting for instructions from the BJP for this theatricsIJ" asked the TNCC president.