TNCC chief’s remarks upset Sonia Gandhi

Elangovan virtually asks Chidambaram and his son Karti to quit the party

Even before the dust could settle over the resignation of the former Union Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president E.V.K.S. Elangovan raked up a new row, virtually asking former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his son Karti to quit the party.

Congress sources confirmed that party president Sonia Gandhi immediately rang up Mr. Elangovan and expressed her displeasure over the contents and timing of his statement to the media.

Mr. Elangovan said that whether the Ganga became clean or not, Ms. Natarajan’s exit would cleanse the Congress in the State. “If another person leaves the party with his heir, the Congress will certainly get deliverance,” he said in the statement, in an apparent reference to Mr. Chidambaram and his son.

A Congress source said the statement was immediately brought to Ms. Gandhi’s attention, and she rang up Mr. Elangovan.

There had been much tension between Mr. Elangovan and Mr. Chidambaram, ever since Mr. Karti aired his views on what ailed the party in the State.

Mr. Elangovan shot off a show cause notice to the AICC member. However, speaking to

The Hindu , Mr. Elangovan denied receiving any call from Ms. Gandhi and said the father and son reference was not aimed at Mr. Chidambaram.

In the statement, Mr. Elangovan also blamed Ms. Natarajan’s grandfather, veteran Congress leader M. Bhaktavatsalam, for the party losing power to the DMK in 1967.

Protest

Meanwhile, a group of Youth Congress workers staged a protest outside Ms. Natarajan’s house on Bhaktavatsalam Salai.