Amid ruckus, TNCC chief Thirunavukkarasar offers to step down

Amid a ruckus triggered by a factional fued at a party meet, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President Su Thirunavukkarasar Tuesday told a gathering of party leaders that he was ready to step down from his post.

Addressing district Congress functionaries and leaders of party wings at a closed door meeting, he said he had informed All India Congress Committee Secretary Sanjay Dutt that he was willing to step down, highly placed party sources told PTI.

Thirunavukkarasar said a whispering campaign was on in a "section of the media" against him that party leaders Sanjay Dutt and Chinna Reddy (AICC Secretaries) were on a visit here to "enquire into complaints" about him.

"I told him (Dutt) if that is the purpose for which you have come... tell me I will step down," Thirunavukkarasar told the gathering amid silence in the presence of Dutt and former TNCC presidents E V K S Elangovan and K V Thangkabalu.

The TNCC chief asserted that "it is false propaganda" and must be avoided, an apparent message to rivals in the party.

"Is that (looking into complaints) is the mission ?..it is not his (Dutt) mission. He has come here to help and develop the party. My full cooperation is for the central team," he said.

The TNCC chief said he was appointed as party State unit president by "Rahul Gandhiji" and should be treated as such.He appealed for "unity to make Rahul Gandhi Prime Minister."
Commenting on the episode, Thirunavukkarasar told the meeting that "Not everybody can attend the meet since entry is only by invitation."
Expressing anguish over being unnecessarily targeted by some in the party who claimed that he was hobnobbing with the AIADMK, he asserted that he had "not even once said that an alliance with the DMK is not needed."
On the charge by some rivals in the party that he was not taking them along, he said he was carrying on party work with "available" functionaries, though there are over a dozen "general secretaries and deputy general secretaries."