CHENNAI, Jan 2: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) functionaries met here on Thursday to discuss the election strategy in view of Sonia Gandhi's decision to campaign for the party.At the day-long meeting presided over by TNCC president K V Thangabalu, partymen have been asked to focus on the Jain Commission's indictment of the DMK in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. All India Congress Committee Joint secretary Mul Chand Meena was present at the meeting.
However, the TNCC leaders opposed to Thangabalu including R Prabhu, Kumari Ananthan and Tindivanam Ramamurthy did not attend the meeting, though applications seeking party tickets for contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections were filed on their behalf by their supporters.
Meanwhile, enthused by Sonia Gandhi's announcement, ticket seekers swarmed the TNCC office on Thursday to submit applications for contesting in the coming Lok Sabha elections. According to Thangabalu, over 300 applications have been received. Former TNCC chief M P
Subramaniam and ex-MP Era Anbarasu came to the TNCC office and filed the applications. Film actress Jayachitra has sought the Arakkonam constituency. Though Thangabalu has not formally filed any application, his supporters have proposed his name for the Salem and Dharmapuri seats.
With the office open till late in the night on both the days, all former MPs, MLAs, district functionaries and office-bearers of the party submitted their applications. A fall-out of Sonia Gandhi's announcement was that the number of women and youth who sought tickets had gone up. A couple of young women from Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's constituency of Sivaganga had filed applications.
Among other applicants were former MPs Dr Vallalperuman, Akbar Basha, and A Devarajan, former MLAs Logambal, Zeenath Sherbuddin, S Ramasubbu, Dr Masilamani, G K J Bharati, T N Muruganandam, S C Swaminathan, Polur Varadan, Dr Ramadas, Yasodha, S M Krishnan and Durai Muthusamy.
Meanwhile, former Tamil Nadu minister S Thangavelu today
quit the Marumalarchi DMK led by V Gopalsamy and joined the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in protest against the MDMK's decision to have alliance with the All India Anna DMK and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
