Sonia shoots down Alagiri’s plan to rejig district units

Sonia was learnt to have cold shouldered a request from TNCC chief KS Alagiri to replace some district party presidents in the state. If information coming out of Sathyamurthy Bhavan were to be believed, a proposal mooted by Alagiri was forwarded by party in-charge of the state Mukul Wasnik recently. A party source unwilling to be named said the AICC general secretary incharge of the party affairs in Tamil Nadu had tabled the proposal to Sonia Gandhi at the prodding of his fellow general secretary KC Venugopal.

 “Alagiri had met Venugopal on the sidelines of swearing in ceremony of DK Shivakumar who took charge as president of Karnataka Congress recently. The TNCC chief had successfully persuaded the AICC general secretary to accept his proposal for replacing a few district Congress presidents. On his return, Venugopal had advised Wasnik to look into the proposal of Alagiri,” said a party source.

 Wasnik then forwarded the proposal to Sonia Gandhi unaware that she would decline it instantly, said the source. Another leader who caught whiff of the proposal revealed that Sonia had also suggested a consultation with former union finance minister P Chidambaram in this connection.

 Alagiri has been going slow on party revamp in the state even over a year after taking charge of the state Congress, unlike his predecessor Su Thirunavukkarasar, who did not waste time in making changes shortly after his elevation.

 Barring the suspension of a district president in Chennai for violating party discipline, the tenure of Alagiri thus far has been largely non-controversial with the various factions not squabbling in public as they usually do, at least in office-bearer appointment.