New TNCC chief has his task cut out

Senior leader Su Thirunavukkarasar, who was today named President of Tamil Nadu Congress, has a tough job on hand to take along various factions and guide the party to a good performance in the coming local body elections.

He takes over the party state unit three months after E V K S Elangovan tendered his resignation owning moral responsibility for the poor showing of Congress in the May assembly polls.

"I will be visiting Delhi tomorrow to call on top party leaders to seek their advice (on key issues) and get their blessings. Later, I will discuss with our state leaders and take over officially," Thirunavukkarasar told PTI.
 

The impending decision of DMK on alliances will have a big impact on his task vis-a-vis the elections to urban and rural local bodies, including for the posts of several thousand councillors, expected to be held next month.

To a question, he said "it is an important election. How we will be going about it will be decided based on the deliberations with our national and state leadership."

Congress had faced the May 16 assembly polls in alliance with DMK. Though it contested in 41 seats, it won only eight.

On Tiurnavukkarasar succeeding him, Elangovan said "he should take along all party workers," viewed as an indication to suggest that he should be above factional differences.

Several other Congress functionaries said steering the party to "reasonable wins," was dependent on two factors. One was taking along all sections of party workers and another working for an electoral arrangement with DMK.

Convincing the DMK to forge hands with Congress may pose difficulties as sections of party functionaries within the DMK are said to be of the view that Congress pulled it down from capturing power in the assembly elections.

A DMK leader said a decision will be taken on the issue of forging alliances for civic polls soon at the party district secretaries meet.

Another task that awaits Thirunavukkarasar, according to Congress functionaries, will be looking into the issue of party appointments for various posts including that of district presidents. During the tenure of Elangovan, there were several grievances with regard to it, they said.

Soon after he was named TNCC chief, the Anna Nagar residence of Thirunavukkarasar here was swarmed by supporters and party functionaries to greet him.

Thirunavukkarasar was a former AIADMK leader and had been a Minister in the Cabinet of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran between 1980 and 1987.

He was elected as an MLA from Aranthangi constituency for six consecutive terms from 1977. He became the Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1977 at a young age of 28 when AIADMK first captured power in the state.

After being the deputy leader of Opposition (AIADMK) between 1987 to 1991, he later floated MGR-ADMK following difference of opinion with party chief Jayalalithaa.

In 2002, he merged his outfit with the BJP and went on to become its national secretary and also Union Minister of State for Shipping in the then NDA regime. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP nominee in 2004 from Madhya Pradesh.

In November 2009, he quit the BJP, resigned his Rajya Sabha membership and joined the Congress.