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Tamil Nadu
By Radha Venkatesan
S. Balakrishnan
A day after the TNCC president went public over rumblings in the State leadership, Mr. Elangovan struck back, openly questioning Mr. Balakrishnan's "powers" to expel district presidents without sanction from the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. "The TNCC president has no powers to remove any district president, appointed by the high command," Mr. Elangovan told an urgently-convened media conference here. Peeved at the removal of his supporters — Mangalraj (south Chennai district president), Muthukumar (north Erode), R.M. Palanichamy (south Erode) and Palur Sampath (Vellore) — , Mr. Elangovan said he had taken up the issue with the high command. "The high command has asked the TNCC chief to withdraw his decision." 
E. V. K. S. Elangovan
Not stopping with that, Mr. Elangovan came up with the most caustic criticism yet of Mr. Balakrishnan, charging that he was not acting independently and that he was being "manipulated" by "an individual" who, in turn, was being "puppeteered" by a "powerful person" in Tamil Nadu. Though Mr. Elangovan refused to name the individual, it was clear his prime target was the former Tamil Maanila Congress president and present AICC secretary, G.K. Vasan. For, after the merger of the TMC with the Congress last August, Mr. Vasan not only ensured the demotion of Mr. Elangovan, an aggressive critic of the ruling AIADMK, from TNCC chief to working president, but also positioned his uncomplaining faithful as the new State Congress chief. However, an unfazed Mr. Elangovan lobbied hard and pushed in a majority of his nominees as district chiefs, leaving the erstwhile TMC camp unhappy. However, despite the uneasy relations, Mr. Balakrishnan and Mr. Elangovan presented a posture of cordiality and campaigned together even in the recent Sattankulam Assembly byelection. But the latest round of appointment of block presidents and district unit office-bearers, brought the differences into the open with the rival camps accusing each other of unilaterally releasing the lists. Trouble started two days ago when Elangovan supporters demanded that the lists be signed by both the working president and the president. As Mr. Balakrishnan rebuffed them, the district presidents unilaterally released the lists of office-bearers without getting his approval. "It was Mr. Balakrishnan who first released the list for Kanyakumari district without my consent. I did nothing unilaterally," insists Mr. Elangovan. Mr.Balakrishnan too maintains that the TNCC working president had no authority to release the list of office-bearers. As the war of words rages, the scourge of factional infighting, which refreshingly took a backseat for a brief while, haunts the party once again. And, the rival camps insist that it only signals that the present arrangement of president and working president is a flop and only breeds factional feud.
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