Ahead of polls, TN Congress gets Chidambaram loyalist as Chief

CHENNAI: The change in Tamil Nadu Congress leadership appointing KS Alagiri as President indicate the emergence of P Chidambaram as an influential force in state unit affairs and the national party’s intent to strengthen alliances with existing partners just ahead of the Parliamentary elections, several party insiders told ET.

The Indian National Congress on Saturday appointed former Parliamentarian KS Alagiri as Chief, besides appointing four working Presidents, for the first time, to devote more attention to individual regions in the state. Alagiri, had earlier sided with Tamil Maanila Congress Founder GK Moopanar before aligning himself with Chidambaram ahead of Moopanar’s son GK Vasan re-launching the party in 2014.

“Alagiri is a Chidambaram loyalist, through and through,” said Karate R Thiagarajan, a Congress party veteran who was also a former Deputy Mayor of Chennai. He added that the change in leadership was, among other reasons, due to the inability of the outgoing President Su. Thirunavukkarasar to leverage the national party’s position of advantage among regional outfits in the state. “His apparent closeness with TTV Dhinakaran’s party was also seen one of the reasons for his removal,” said Thiagarajan.

For long-time Congress party watchers, a state leadership owing its allegiance to politician of national stature such as Chidambaram comes to be after nearly three decades when Moopanar had been an important figure in the late 1980s. Americai Narayanan, Congress Spokesperson for Tamil Nadu, told ET: “It is needless to say P Chidambaram is a politician of national stature, and now, he will be the undisputed leader at the state Congress level, too. After K Kamaraj [former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister], it was Moopanar who was considered an undisputed leader. Now, Chidambaram gets that stature.”

Recently, Chidambaram and his son Karti have been facing the heat from interrogation agencies over their involvement in cases relating to foreign investment in INX Media. In late January this year, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation had sought custodial interrogation of the former Finance Minister. Politically, the Indian National Congress had had a rout in Tamil Nadu in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, with Karti Chidambaram turning up a distant fourth from the Sivagangai constituency, scoring below BJP’s H Raja.

Commenting on the rationale behind Alagiri’s appointment, Karti Chidambaram told ET: “All functionaries in the Tamil Nadu Congress have long-standing relationships with my father, who, by sheer seniority of age and experience, is a leading person within the Tamil Nadu unit. KS Alagiri is also a senior figure being a former MLA and MP. The Congress President has appointed KSA (Alagiri) taking all factors into account.”

For Tamil Nadu’s alliance partners under the DMK, the entrance of Alagiri augurs well in view of his accessibility, which may enable smaller parties to mark their presence in the alliance, said a leader in one of Tamil Nadu’s regional parties. The DMK, according to a recent interview to ET by former Telecom Minister and DMK Propaganda Secretary A Raja, still holds the upper hand in decisions on alliances and seat-sharing talks.