Narayanasamy’s candidature causes rift in Puducherry Congress

67-year-old Union Minister V. Narayanasamy was first elected on Congress ticket to Lok Sabha from Puducherry in 2009. He had been Rajya Sabha member for three terms. He has been MoS in the UPA government since 2009. File photo: S.S. Kumar

The re-nomination of Union Minister V. Narayanasamy for the lone Lok Sabha seat of Puducherry has triggered a rift in the Congress party in the Union Territory with more senior functionaries resigning from the primary membership of the party.

On Tuesday, S. Rathinam alias Manohar, former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and secretary, communications department, Pradesh Congress Committee, quit the party. He is the third leader to resign in the last one week.

The two other leaders who had also quit the party over the issue included Y. Ismayil, State executive committee member, and Abdul Kadir of Karaikal region, causing ripples in the Puducherry unit just when Mr. Narayanasamy is to file his nomination.

Ever since the party high command’s announcement, P. Kannan, one of the top three leaders in the Congress, was keeping himself away from party affairs. Despite repeated persuasions, Mr. Kannan had been avoiding constituency-level workers' meetings and other consultation meetings.

Earlier, a group of 50 persons who had held positions in various wings of the PCC resigned from their respective posts protesting against the re-nomination of Mr. Narayanasamy. Widening the rift within the Puducherry Congress was the speculation that Mr. Kannan might support the All India NR Congress candidate, R. Radhakrishnan, a BJP ally in Puducherry, when the former met Chief Minister N. Rangasamy at a hotel here recently. To appease the sulking Congress leader, the Congress high command appointed Mr. Kannan as party observer in Karnataka to oversee the electioneering.

But Mr. Kannan is yet to make up his mind on accepting the new assignment.

Mr. Manohar, who is stated as a supporter of the Rajya Sabha Member Mr. Kannan, told reporters that the activities of the Pradesh Congress Committee had pained him and party workers. It had been acting against the policies and programmes of the party high command, particularly party president Sonia Gandhi.

Most of the true leaders had been sidelined due to the autocratic functioning of the PCC, Mr. Manohar said.