The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Rangasamy skips party meeting

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Monday, Jun 20, 2005

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Other States - Pondicherry

Rangasamy skips party meeting

Special Correspondent

Opposition to PCC president seen as reason Ministers, 10 MLAs also stay away from training session

PONDICHERRY: Eyebrows were raised at the absence of Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, his cabinet colleagues and 10 Congress MLAs at the inauguration of the training programme held on Saturday "to develop the party in the context of the forthcoming Assembly polls."

The AICC secretary and party observer, K B Krishnamoorthy, inaugurated the programme. None of the speakers referred to the boycott by Mr. Rangasamy and other Ministers opposed to the PCC leader and MP, V Narayanasamy.

The training programme was scheduled to be held here but the venue was shifted to Ariyankuppam, the native town of the new chairman of the PIPDIC (Industries Development Corporation) and PCC secretary, Vinayakamoorthy, who is a confidant of Mr. Narayanasamy. The function was apparently held to demonstrate the support Mr. Narayanasamy has among party workers although most of the speakers pleaded for coordination between the party and the Government.

There have been sustained demands to remove Mr. Narayanasamy as party leader because of his "unhelpful style of functioning." The opposing group has forwarded a memorandum through the Chief Minister to the AICC high command.

Now that Mr. Krishnamoorthy had seen for himself the schism in the party he is expected to brief the high command in New Delhi. The Rangasamy led Congress Government has completed four years in office and elections to the Assembly are due next year. It is felt that the "achievements" of the Government and the support of the Congress led UPA Government at the Centre should be seen as "assets" for the party to perform well in the elections.

The political scenario in the union territory has seen several developments. The emergence of a new party, Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC), headed by P Kannan has added vigour to politics here. The adoption of the "one man, one post" policy by the Congress to justify splitting the posts of party leadership and Chief Minister has not yielded the desired result of smooth relations between the two functionaries. Hence, there is a feeling that the Chief Minister should automatically hold the post of party president as in the past.

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