A major crisis is brewing up in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. In a surprising development, EVKS Elangovan, president of the TNCC has issued a show-cause notice to Karthi Chidambaram, son of P Chidambaram, former Union Finance Minister and the Congress strongman from this part of the country, for anti-party activities.
The show-cause notice is the fallout of a meeting convened by Karthi at Chennai on Thursday to announce the formation of G67, a group of young intellectuals, all of them born after 1967, the year the Congress lost power in Tamil Nadu. Described by Karthi as a group of modern-day youngsters, the G67 was created to ‘strengthen the party in order to regain its lost glory in the State’. According to some of the G67 members who had attended the meeting, Karthi was highly critical of Elangovan and even the central leadership of the Congress. The Thursday meeting was preceded by a meeting the father-son duo had with select mediapersons in a five-star hotel in Chennai in December last.
Speaking to reporters at the TNCC headquarters, Elangovan said the G67 was formed without getting the prior permission of the party leadership (read Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi). “Karthi has been asked to give explanation within the next seven days for violating party discipline and order,” said Elangovan. He also made it clear that if the explanation is found to be unsatisfactory to the party leadership, Karthi would be served the “marching orders”.
The father-son duo has been in a battle mode with both the State and Central leadership after the appointment of Elangovan as TNCC chief. Chidambaram, who had toured the State in the run-up to the election of TNCC chief had demanded that a youngster in his 40s and with higher educational qualification and who could speak good English should be appointed as the TNCC chief. He had also said that the day was not far when a non-Gandhi would lead the Congress.