5 TNCC seniors called for poll discussions
New TN-Pondy in-charge Ajoy Kumar invites leaders for 2-day meet in Delhi from tomorrow
Former union minister P Chidambaram; Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KS Alagiri
CHENNAI: The Congress national high command has invited senior party leaders from Tamil Nadu to discuss the ensuing Lok Sabha election preparations.
Dr Ajoy Kumar, who was appointed in-charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry a few days ago, on Tuesday, invited five senior leaders from Tamil Nadu Congress to attend a two-day meeting on “National Alliance,” from December 29 in New Delhi.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KS Alagiri, Congress Legislature Party leader K Selvaperunthagai, former union minister P Chidambaram, AICC general secretaries from the state B Manickam Tagore and A Chella Kumar were invited for the meeting called for by Mukul Wasnik, Convenor, AICC National Alliance Committee.
Almost all the invited TNCC leaders were understood to have left for Nagpur from where the grand old party would launch the campaign for the 2024 Parliamentary election on Thursday. A senior Congress leader confirmed the invitation for the meeting and disclosed that the state Congress leaders would apprise the high command about the number of seats they could demand from the DMK, an important constituent of the INDIA bloc and the leader of the alliance in Tamil Nadu.
“We contested 10 seats, including Puducherry in 2019 in the same alliance. We look forward to increasing our tally this time. The numbers would be finalised between the DMK and AICC leadership. We will make our suggestions to the AICC,” said a highly placed TNCC functionary.
Another TNCC leader, who is likely to attend the December 29-30 meeting in the national capital, revealed to DT Next that the state leaders would present the list of winnable constituencies of the Congress party to the AICC.
“We already have eight sitting seats in Tamil Nadu. The DMK would be keen on snatching away two or three of our sitting seats. We have received such feelers already. We cannot insist on retaining all sitting seats. Compromising one or two seats from both sides is essential in a harmonious alliance. We must contemplate on which seat we could do away with; if at all the high command is willing, or which new seat we could demand from the DMK. We will present our wish list of seats to the high command,” said the TNCC senior, unwilling to be quoted.