Sixty seven-year-old KS Alagiri, a staunch supporter of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been appointed as president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. The announcement was made by KC Venugopal, the AICC General Secretary, who over the last four years has emerged as the close advisor of party chief Rahul Gandhi.
While Alagiri, a former member of the Lok Sabha and a two-term member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly succeeds S Thirunavakarassar, the AICC has appointed four working presidents for the TNCC. They are H Vasanth Kumar, a business baron who is also one of the eight party legislators, K Jayakumar, the Dalit face of the party, Mayura Jayakumar who hails from South west Tamil Nadu and MK Vishnu Prasad, son of former TNCC chief M Krishnasamy and son-in-law of Dr S Ramadoss, the PMK founder.
“Alagiri is more of a loyalist to Karti Chidambaram than to P Chidambaram. This means that the Chidambaram family would have the upper hand in deciding the party candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election,” said a senior Congress leader from the State. The Congress is hopeful of he DMK allocating at least ten seats out of the forty at stakes (39 from Tamil Nadu and one from Puducherry).
Vasanth Kumar was the lone Congress candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha election who had got back his security deposit while the remaining 38 contestants (including Mani Shankar Aiyer, Karti Chidambaram) had to forfeit theirs. There was wide expectation in party circles that Vasanth Kumar would be nominated as TNCC president.
While Thiruvanakarassar has not been given any alternate position, what surprised many was the High Command overlooking Peter Alphonse in the appointment of TNCC president. Alphonse is the most visible face of the Congress [party in the State and enjoys a good rapport with the DMK’s first family.